When in Middle Earth
by Dev1lOnUrShou1der
Summary: NOW BEING REWRITTEN...When in Middle Earth do as the Middle Earthlings do? Sakura finds herself in Middle Earth...
1. Prologue:Where the hell is Middle Earth?

Sakura's eyes stung and she scrunched up her face in a pathetic attempt at fighting away that too-bright light, currently playing havoc on her abused corneas. Eyes still screwed tightly shut, she grunted quietly and steadily began assessing her position, such as she could determine without the use of sight. She could feel springy, mossy ground beneath her, and the whisper of trees brushed across the edges of her hearing. She was aware of the faint sound of splashing water, and birdsong.

'So', she mused, 'I am in or near a forest, near a river, and it is a nice day.' This last revelation was itself rather puzzling, as the last thing she remembered was a torrential downpour. She had thought at the time that it matched her mood perfectly, as she and Kakashi stood preparing to face Sasuke. She ignored the short pain that thought brought to her heart, and returned to her evaluation.

Her ribs ached, but the level of pain indicated bruising rather than a break, for which she was relieved. Broken ribs were a bitch to heal. She directed her medical assessment to the rest of her body. Arms are very sore – probably scraped and bruised. Shins – hurt like hell, probably more bruising. Head, feeling a bit funny – probably a concussion and there was definitely a nasty cut above her eye, because the blood dribbling down her forehead was really starting to irritate her. Oddly, she realised that her injuries were, though minimal, only on the front half of her body – her back was perfectly fine. Had she fallen face-first? Taken an attack face-on? She couldn't remember. Dammit she had probably wound up unconscious again. Belatedly, she also realised that she was laid on her side, in the recovery position – or close to it – which meant that somebody had been taking care of her. She felt momentarily relieved, if Kakashi was able to care for her he must be alive, and she must be with him. Certainly Sasuke would never do such a thing.

This happy thought was soon torn away however, when she heard the footfalls of her caretaker slowly approaching from the same direction as the sound of the water. Had it been her sensei, or even any other shinobi, she would not have heard footfalls at all. This meant that while this person appeared to be looking after her, she was in the presence of a stranger. She didn't like that thought, but the light still hurt her eyes and for the life of her she couldn't bring herself to open them. So, Sakura waited, listening intently as the stranger drew near.

The footsteps were light, and she realised that had she not been a shinobi herself she would most likely have not heard the person coming. Her musings were cut short when a damp cloth made contact with her head, and the blood that had irritated her was gently wiped away. She unintentionally flinched, partly at the coldness of the wet cloth and in part because she hadn't expected it. She instantly berated herself.

"Are you awake now, little one?"

It was a man's voice that had spoken to her, definitely a stranger, but his tone was gentle – like one soothing a frightened Ox – and she felt in her heart that this man meant her no harm, unknown as he was. She was thankful that he spoke one of the languages she recognised, though his dialect and accent was vastly different to that spoken in her homeland. Sakura realised that wherever she was, she was far from home.

And with that unpleasant thought, she struggled to open her eyes.

Seeing what she was attempting to do, the man gently cupped her face with his hands, so as to shade her eyes – for which she was grateful. Slowly she parted her eyelids, wincing slightly at the sunlight, until she was able to squint blearily at her caretaker.

He was a middle-aged man, rather rough-looking and bedraggled, with dark hair that hung to his shoulders and a short – though unkept - beard.

Aragorn was surprised when the girl opened her eyes fully - though she had just awoken, there was no dullness in her eyes. Rather, she appeared to be assessing him. There was intelligence in her gaze, and he guessed that she was already forming conclusions as to her current state and whereabouts. But it was the colour that most shocked him. Never had he seen such a vibrant green, save in the summer trees of fair Rivendell…It seemed that her hair was not the only strangeness about her.

"Where am I?" Inwardly she winced at how hoarse her voice was. The stranger however, immediately brought a water skin to her lips. She struggled to drink from the strange pouch, and spilled a great deal, but her stranger was patient and helped her, 'til he had determined that she'd taken enough. He then gently lifted her into a sitting position; propped against what she guessed was his travelling pack (she could now see her own pack across the clearing, against a tree).

"Where am I?" Sakura repeated, her voice stronger this time, and her companion looked at her oddly for a moment before answering. Her dialect and accent was not like any he had heard before, though she at least seemed to know the language.

"In the forest's near Bree. I am the Ranger here." At her look of utter confusion, he felt the need to expand. "In the southern realm of Middle Earth."

Sakura looked at him blankly.

"Where the hell is Middle Earth?"

It dawned on them both that she was a lot farther from home than she had originally thought.


	2. Chapter 1: My Name is Aragorn

Strider, as he had eventually introduced himself, was kind enough. After the initial shock had worn off, he had returned her pack and tan cloak to her, and had decided to take her with him to an inn called The Prancing Pony where he was to meet an old friend of his – an old wizard by the name of Gandalf, who apparently would know what to do with her, and possibly how to get her back to the strange world that she told him she had come from. For her part, Sakura was still trying to figure out how the hell she had gotten to this strange place – apparently another world entirely.

Strider had told her how he had seen a bright light over the tree tops, followed by a great commotion as something -her - fell from the sky and through the trees. By the time he got there, the strange light was gone, and there was nothing else left except her – laid unmoving face-down on the ground. That certainly explained the scratches and bruises she had all over the front of her body. But how had she gotten here?

She bit her lip and scowled slightly in thought. She'd been with Kakashi, about to face off with Sasuke, after having failed to kill her ex-teammate as she had planned. She relentlessly pushed away the tears that threatened to rise at the thought, and suddenly stiffened as a realisation hit her. Sasuke and Kakashi. Both possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan. Sasuke could warp time and space, and Kakashi could send objects and even people to a different dimension. It was entirely possible that either one of them could have mistakenly (or purposefully in Sasuke's case, she thought angrily) sent her here.

"Have you figured it out?"

Sakura started, surprised by his sudden question.

"What?"

Strider smiled slightly. "Your face betrays your thoughts. You have been deep in thought this past hour, and have just come to a conclusion, correct?"

Sakura frowned, muttering to herself 'I'll have to work on that', making her companion chuckle quietly. She lifted her head after debating a moment how much, and how to tell him.

"I think I know what sent me here," she began, "The last thing I remember, I was in a battle with two strong warriors of my lands, one of which betrayed us. In my home, we use different techniques to fight, many of which you might consider almost magical. Many such techniques are unique to a particular individual or clan. Both of these warriors possessed strong techniques which may have backfired and either one of them could have sent me here."

Strider frowned as he processed this information. "In that case I suspect Gandalf will certainly be your best chance of returning home. He is wise and well-versed in the magic of our world. Perhaps he may be able to reverse these 'techniques' you speak of." He looked at her in contemplation, "You are also a warrior in your world?"

Sakura nodded, though she did not offer up any further information and they walked in silence until darkness fell, and Strider instructed that they would set up camp.

For Sakura, it was second nature to secure the perimeter with genjutsu traps before unrolling her sleeping mat and starting a small fire. It seemed that her companion was also well-versed in concealment, as the spot he picked lay in a small hollow overshadowed by what appeared to have been a landslip. The overhanging rock was supported by the twisted roots of the dead trees which had fallen with it, and as such their campsite would be secluded from anyone casually passing through the wilds in the dead of night. He did not question the strange symbols she made with her hands, or the faint green glow that encased them briefly after each hand-sign. Sakura quickly explained that he would need to wake her before attempting to leave the campsite; else he would be trapped in her technique. He decided not to question it.

Sakura sleepily nuzzled her pillow, basking in the warmth it radiated.

Her brow furrowed slightly as her drowsy mind processed that particular piece of information…warmth? Come to think of it when had she gone to bed? She'd been up well past midnight talking to Aragorn about her world and his…talking to Aragorn…talking to-

"Wah!" She scrambled away, tripping over herself and landing unceremoniously on her ass. 'Ow' she muttered, severely embarrassed by Aragorn's raucous laughter.

Of course, they'd been sat by the fire side-by-side, exchanging stories and facts and she'd managed to fall asleep on him. Wonderful.

"I'm flattered that you trust me enough to sleep in my presence," He teased her.

She couldn't help rolling her eyes. It seemed that her companion was in an amiable mood this morning. "Well I suppose I've got no choice but to trust you now." She said with a reluctant smile. Even though her inner self was tearing out her hair (**"_How_ much of an idiot could I be?"**) she couldn't find it in herself to regret it. The tense mood from yesterday had abated, and while the two of them could not trust one another completely, it was a comfort to both that they could sleep easy from now on. It was, she thought, at the very least a step in the right direction.

The walk to Bree was spent in a comfortable amiable quiet, not awkward as it had been yesterday, and occasional conversation. Sakura was feeling more generous with her information today. She told him small things, unimportant things. The trees here were different to those back home. She liked the songs of the birds here – they were less harsh than the calls of the birds in her village. She was named after a flower, because of her hair colour, and her full name meant "Springtime of Cherry Blossoms". He told her that he lived in the wilds. That the trees here were not the most beautiful he had seen, and that he was not well liked where they were going. People feared Ranger's it seemed.

Bree, Sakura discovered, brought yet more surprises. At Strider's instruction, she kept her hood over her head, hiding her hair and obscuring her face. He did the same, though it seemed he was still recognised because many people seemed to avoid him during their walk to the Inn, as he'd said they would. She felt a little bad that she was glad that they did, and that her face was unseen. She didn't particularly want a lot of attention directed at her in this strange new world, and was glad that nobody could see the unhidden amazement on her features at everything in view. Middle Earth resembled some of the more backwater villages of the Fire Country, where 'modern' conveniences were few and far between. The houses were one or two stories, wooden framed with thatched roofs and shuttered windows. The roads were cobbled, lit with flaming torches and marked with the tracks of carts and horses. Sakura was most surprised by the Horses, which seemed to be the primary beast-of-burden. Horses were much less common in her homeland, and Oxen were used instead. There were no Oxen here.

Bree was home to not only Humans but also small beings, which Strider whispered were Hobbits. They were half the size of the men, human-like but plumper in general, all with curly hair and large hairy feet. She thought they were rather cute…and resolved to ask Strider more about them later.

Over all, she thought, she could have wound up somewhere much worse. And she began to bless her fortune for the first time, that it was Strider who had found her. Her brief stay with him in the woods had shown her that he could be trusted for the most part, and the sword tucked away under his cloak suggested that should he be needed in a fight he'd be more than capable. His demeanour was not one of an amateur. He had a friend that may be able to help her – so far her only lead and therefore worth investigating. And his curiosity, if nothing else, would most likely mean he'd keep her around. She made a mental note to improve her friendship with him if she could. Life as a ninja had taught her that good allies were worth holding onto, and being brutally honest, she didn't want to be totally alone in this alien place.

By noon they made it to The Prancing Pony, a day ahead of the expected arrival of Strider's wizard friend. By noon, Sakura had also made the unpleasant discovery that it got very hot in Bree, and that her cloak may be good for keeping the sun off but also trapped in the heat. She couldn't take it off, and the heat was making her grumpy. All-in-all she was not in a particularly pleasant mood and her infamous temper was beginning to fray. She did not enjoy the suspicious stares she was garnering as she walked next to Strider, and the childish part of her resented him a little for it. His early-morning amiability had apparently vanished once they were in the village, replaced with stony silence. The rational half of her mind reasoned that this was the persona the villagers feared and expected, and that he – for reasons of his own – seemed to want attention even less than she did. The irrational part was not mollified in the least, and was sulkily rethinking her earlier decision to befriend him.

The Innkeeper did not help matters. He was clearly a scatterbrained and rather dim-witted fellow, and quaked in his boots when Strider pushed open the door. She was quite sure he nearly wet himself when he caught sight of her, obviously assuming her to be another Ranger.

"N-Now Strider, I d-don't want any trouble…" He stammered, red faced.

"Of course not," Strider's voice was low and smooth, "We merely require a room."

The Innkeeper had shoved a key toward them, and abruptly turned to another customer, apparently of the 'If-I-don't-know-about-it-it-isn't-there' variety of civilian. This would not have bothered her if it weren't for the nervous looks of the other patrons. It wasn't just them, she realised. There was something that had the villagers on edge.

The room was simple, and smelled of wood polish and earth. A log-fire was already crackling in the grate, and her companion wasted no time in claiming the only chair for a smoke in the corner. Sakura stood watching him guardedly. Apparently not finding the answers she wanted on his face, she deftly crossed her arms and glared. Feeling the weight of her stare on him, he lifted his head, momentarily surprised by the renewed suspicion in her eyes.

"There is something you are not telling me."

He was silent. She huffed and continued, "There is something here that they are all afraid of, and they are more afraid of it than they are of you. And you know what it is."

Infuriatingly, he turned away, "It is nothing you need to know about. Trust me."

Sakura's temper was not good at the best of times, and right now she was a ninja on edge. Shinobi as a rule didn't like the unknown – especially when the unknown was perceived to be dangerous – and it was making her nervous.

She angrily stomped over to his chair, ignoring the small dents left in the floorboards as she did so. "I want to trust you," she snarled, desperately trying to keep her voice level, "I want to be your friend. But how can I when you are so secretive? You won't even tell me your real name! Clearly you are keeping me around for one reason or another – and if it has anything to do with what is making an entire village so damn anxious then I damn well want to know about it!"

For a long time it was silent in the room. A tense, overbearing silence. "I believe, that trust is essential for friendships to form…do you not agree Sakura?"

Her glare did not let up in the slightest. He sighed again. "I cannot yet tell you, I would rather that Gandalf be here. But you have my word that I will do so soon. However, if I tell you my name, will you trust me? Explicitly?"

Sakura regarded him for a moment, taking in his earnest and weary expression, and nodded slowly. She did need this man and his friends, if she wanted to get home. She had to keep remembering that. She needed him to trust her too.

"If I tell you my name, understand that you must not repeat it. If we are in the presence of another, address me only as Strider. Do I have your word?"

"Yes," she replied simply.

He paused a moment, before beginning "I have my own reason's for not revealing it. I beg you not to ask them. But my name is Aragorn."


	3. Chapter 2: Totally Worth It

Aragorn was clearly agitated. He paced the small room endlessly into the night, pausing only to peer through the fogged windows, before frustratedly returning to his pacing. His friend was now two days late, and it was becoming obvious that he would not be coming at all.

"Something has happened" Aragorn muttered. "He would not abandon them so easily."

Sakura's ears perked up, "Them?" she repeated suspiciously.

Aragorn abruptly stopped, and turned to her. Urgently he took her hand and looked her dead in the eye. "What is said here must not leave this room."

"You have my word." She seemed to be saying that a lot lately.

Aragorn saw no deception in her eyes, and her steady pulse under his fingertips told him that she spoke no lies. He could trust her to keep her word.

"There are four hobbits coming, one of whom carries an object of great value and power. Gandalf was meant to meet them here, and contacted me with instruction to be here also. He would have me take them to Rivendell, a place that will be safe for them, and the object they carry. But something has befallen him and I fear the worst. There are dark creatures who are seeking this object, no doubt pursuing the Halflings as we speak. These same dark creatures are what alarm the villagers so, and it will be no easy task keeping the hobbits – and the object they hold – safe. When I learned that you were a warrior, I hoped that you may be able to help me in this, and in exchange Gandalf could return you to your homeland once we reach Rivendell."

Sakura took a moment to absorb all this. She spoke slowly "And now?"

Aragorn wasted no words "I do not doubt that Gandalf will meet us in Rivendell."

Sakura frowned in thought. Basically it boiled down to "Protect the innocent and go home". She already owed Aragorn for caring for her, and his friend may be her only chance of going home. Though such thoughts were really only justification – the very moment he'd mentioned protecting the Halflings she'd been assaulted by her conscience (who sounded suspiciously like Naruto) demanding that she help them.

To Aragorn, she nodded. "I'll help you."

Relieved, he squeezed her hand gently, "Thank you." Sakura couldn't help but smile at him. Befriending Aragorn had not been a mistake.

Nightfall found the two companions in the bustling hall of the Inn, hooded and cloaked, sat quietly in the darkest corner. They awaited the arrival of their charges.

Aragorn had lit up his pipe again, and only the occasional flaring embers illuminated his chin, giving him a rather creepy appearance. Idly, Sakura wondered if that was the desired effect. She was startled out of her reverie by his gruff whisper. "How good are you at staying hidden?"

She cast her eyes over the room and answered without looking at him, "Very, when I want to be. Certainly nobody here would notice me."

It was the answer he wanted. "I want you to scout the main entrance. We cannot see it from here. The minute any hobbit asks for Gandalf I want to know, and then I want you to tail them, as subtly as you can. I have a feeling you will achieve it better than I."

Sakura smiled and stood as if to go to the bathroom, and indeed wandered off that way. Aragorn watched silently and curiously as she disappeared around the corner, ignored by the rest of the patrons. What could be more natural than going to the bathroom? He was surprised when she returned to her seat not 5 minutes later.

He tilted his head, about to ask what was wrong, when she lifted her head and winked conspiratorially at him. Then to his surprise, she tilted her head meaningfully at the ceiling.

Only Aragorn's iron-like self control stopped him exclaiming out loud, as a _second_ Sakura scurried on all-fours _upside-down_ across the high ceiling, slipping in and out of the shadows so quickly that he almost didn't believe he'd seen her. The Sakura beside him merely sat quietly sipping her ale, utterly unperturbed. Her clone easily made her way to the entrance halls, and slipped into the shadows between two thick beams, where she would be unseen by anyone who happened to glance at the ceiling. With medical precision, she channelled chakra to her eardrums to magnify her hearing, and settled in to listen.

Within the hour, four very bedraggled looking Hobbits stumbled into the Inn. They were dirt-smeared and looking rather worse for wear, with their travelling cloaks ringing wet and their clothes muddy. The dark-haired hobbit wasted no time attracting the attention of the innkeeper, and she took note of how he hesitated before stating his name, and how he repeated it unnecessarily. "Underhill" was almost certainly not his real name. She allowed herself a triumphant internal _'__**Shannaro!**__'_ as he spoke of Gandalf.

"Oh yes, I remember, elderly chap, big grey beard? Haven't seen him for 6 months" The Innkeeper took little note of their dismayed faces, and quickly bustled off to tend the bar.

Sakura's clone frowned at this information, and filed it away to report to Aragorn. The clone quickly dismissed herself with a barely noticeable poof of smoke, and the original Sakura sat up and scanned the room as the information flooded into her head.

"There." She muttered to Aragorn, along with a quickly relayed summary of what she'd learned, before casually making her way to the bar and motioning for another 2 pints of ale. He had to admit he was impressed at how natural she made it look.

He took note of how the fat Hobbit had pointed him out to the dark-haired one, who'd then grabbed the Innkeeper as he passed. No doubt to ascertain his identity. At least they were not completely oblivious. That was promising.

Meanwhile, Sakura had mentioned in passing to the men next to her at the bar, that Strider and herself were in fact in town looking for a Mr. Baggin's. She deliberately made it sound just a little sinister, knowing their own paranoia and wild imaginations would fill in the gaps, and left with her drinks sound in the knowledge that they'd be discussing it avidly the minute her back was turned. Indeed before she'd taken three steps, she heard the name repeated by non other than one of the hobbits who'd just arrived. What followed next was a blur. The dark-haired hobbit, alarmed at hearing his true name made a mad dash across the room to grab his friend.

"Pippin!"

"Steady On!"

The hobbit lost his grip and his footing. He fell, his arms flailing as he tumbled backwards. Sakura saw a flash of gold before the hobbit hit the floor and instantly disappeared.

The Inn was instantly in uproar, Aragorn had jolted forward in his seat, and Sakura – suspecting that he was about to leap up and grab the wayward hobbit (wherever he was) – instantly moved to distract the crowd. She dropped the glasses in her hands with a noisy crash, and after a calculated moment of apparent shock, bounded over to the hobbit at the bar to congratulate him on his friend's performance. She had "always loved magicians, though their tricks were nought but smoke and mirrors" and the patrons, breaking into relieved and accepting smiles began to applaud.

A glance back at the corner revealed Aragorn to be nowhere in sight, and she slipped away up the stairs after him. She slid into the room just as he slammed the door shut behind their charge, and silently took her place behind it. She ignored the alarmed look the Hobbit sent her; his attention was soon fixated on Aragorn.

"What do you want?"

"A little more caution from you. That is no trinket you carry."

"I carry nothing."

"Indeed." Aragorn's voice carried an unmistakeable edge to it, as he quickly snuffed out the candles. "I can avoid being seen if I wish, but to disappear entirely?" He abruptly pulled down his hood and stared meaningfully at the Hobbit. "That is a rare gift."

"Who are you?" The fear in his voice was evident, and only magnified when Aragorn scornfully told him that he was not nearly frightened enough. "I know what hunts you."

He stalked toward him, but a scuffling sound outside the door had had instantly drawing his sword, and Sakura's hands flew to her kunai-pouch. Suddenly the door was flung open and the Hobbit's three companions burst in with candlesticks and chairs, and one with his fists in the air. "Let 'im go! Or I'll 'av you Longshanks!"

Aragorn, relieved, sheathed his sword. "You have a stout heart little Hobbit." He nodded to Sakura, who silently returned her knives to the pouch, and closed the door with a snap.

The Halflings jumped, not having seen her behind the door and instantly spun around with fear in their faces. "Who's he?" The stout one yelled, "What do you think your doing?"

"Protecting you," Aragorn replied shortly, motioning for Sakura to remove her hood.

Sakura was less than impressed. (**"**_**HE?**_**") **She drew herself up to her full height (admittedly not a lot but still enough to loom over the hobbits) and stalked toward the one that had spoken, flicking a kunai into her hand. She raised it casually to point at the Hobbit, as if it was nothing more than an extension of her finger, and spoke in a voice dangerously low. She figured a bit of 'good-cop-bad-cop' never hurt.

"Be careful Mr. Hobbit. You could insult someone like that."

And with that she flicked it into the floor between his feet, embedding it by an inch, and ripped back her hood with a glare. The looks on their faces were totally worth it.


	4. Chapter 3: Mutual dislike

Sakura was moodily coming to the conclusion that she didn't actually like Hobbits all that much. And today was only the first day on their journey to Rivendell. Aragorn handled their constant complaining far better than she did – she was using all her restraint not to turn around and smack that Samwise Gamgee, whose mutterings were seriously grating on her ears and nerves. She managed it only by forcibly reminding herself that it was only his loyalty and concern for Frodo that was talking. She tried very _very_ hard to keep remembering that. Thankfully nobody had yet noticed that her footsteps were leaving deepening dents in the frost-bitten ground. Which brought her to another point, _yes _it was cold. But they were wearing considerably more clothing than her, and were thus warmer, and therefore had no right to complain. Quite apart from the complaining, the constant stares were really beginning to irritate her. Just because she was a girl did not give them the right to stare at her! She ignored the fact that pink-haired girls who threatened people with knives were probably not a common occurrence here. She had not stayed awake all night with Aragorn, watching over these ungrateful Hobbits, to be stared at! Not only was she cold and hungry, but tired and irritated beyond all hell. She really didn't know how Aragorn could stand it. She'd never been more grateful to see the sunset.

"Strider," she called quietly, keeping to her word and not using his name. "There was an outcrop of rocks back there; it could be a good place to set up camp."

He nodded distractedly, scanning the surrounding area quickly. "Can you do that technique you did before? To conceal us?"

She nodded quickly, genjutsu wasn't her specialty but she was decent at it, and though she wasn't sure if it would work on the Ringwraith's that followed them a simple genjutsu would at least provide more safety than none at all. She began forming hand-signs. Aragorn directed the Hobbits back to the outcrop, and had clearly warned them against speaking to her - when she got back the camp was utterly silent and their charges were determinedly looking everywhere except her person. It seemed that he had picked up on her mood. She batted him a quick smile of gratitude.

A brief argument over who should take first watch culminated in a short lecture-a-la-Sakura on the wonder that is soldier pills, along with an equally short explanation that he wouldn't be able to use them, and therefore was going to need his sleep if he expected to be of any use as a guard. His responding argument was abruptly squashed when Sakura chomped down on the aforesaid pill, with the declaration "Too late now buddy, get your ass over there with those lazy buggers and sleep." She pointedly ignored his rejoinder about "unladylike speech," and "unbecoming tempers."

The morning brought little change in the hobbits, who did not appreciate being woken at sunrise and walked through the snow at a "leg-breaking pace" on a mediocre breakfast of mushrooms and bread. Sakura had expected them to want a break at some point, but she didn't expect them to start hunkering down and getting out the pots and pans. Apparently neither had Aragorn.

"What are you doing?" He asked incredulously. It was Pippin who replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Breakfast."

"You've already had it."

Pippin gave him what could only be described as "a look".

"We had one yes, but what about second breakfast?"

Aragorn just shook his head and walked away, muttering something under his breath that sounded like "_Hobbits._"

Sakura watched in amusement as Merry stood up and clapped Pippin on the shoulder. "I don't think he knows about second breakfast Pip." Pippin looked horrified.

"What about brunch? Afternoon tea? Elevenses? He knows about those doesn't he?"

"I wouldn't count on it." The conversation was interrupted when several apples came whooshing over the treetops. Sakura easily caught one and finished her own apple rather quickly; while the group travelled much as they had the day before. Sakura herself was in a much more forgiving mood this morning, and almost regretted her harsh thoughts from the previous day. Frodo, for his part, was mostly silent – Sakura counted her blessings for that – but Merry and Pippin kept up a steady stream of chatter around mouthfuls of apple. She was somewhat glad that those two seemed to have relaxed somewhat in the presence of herself and Aragorn (and food), but Sam was clearly indisposed to follow suit.

"How do we know we can trust this 'Strider'?" She heard him mutter grumpily, obviously intending the words for his fellow hobbits' ears only, and she was immediately flooded with outrage for her friend. Did that fat, ungrateful hobbit not notice anything? How Aragorn was risking his own safety by protecting them? How he'd barely slept the past two nights, watching out for them? So absorbed in her thoughts, Sakura didn't hear Frodo's reply, and it was only when she felt Aragorn's concerned hand on her shoulder that she realised she'd been glaring at Sam.

"You're a lot safer with him than with me, Hobbit." She snarled, and even Aragorn was taken aback by the venom in her voice.

He patted her shoulder awkwardly, attempting to mediate, or at least dispel the building tension. It would not do for a fight to break out. "Sakura, perhaps you could scout ahead?" He tried, keeping his voice neutral and as placating as possible, still unsure as to the source of her ire. She nodded stiffly, and marched into the trees.

He turned to Sam, his expression blank. "What was that about?"

Sam scowled. "Damned if I know. All I know is she's been naught but unpleasant since we met, always glaring and growling at a fella'. She don't like me, an' I don't like 'er. Don't trust 'er either." Sam stopped and scowled at Aragorn. "Or you for that matter. Ow'd we know if you're a friend o' Gandalf?"

Pippin helpfully pointed out that he'd already said that, just now, to Frodo- and almost immediately Merry not-so-subtly elbowed him in the gut, the universal sign for _"Now would be a good time to shut up"_. Aragorn looked unperturbed, and merely raised his eyebrows, unknowingly repeating Frodo's earlier sentiments. "What choice do you have?"  
With apparently no more to be said on the matter, he turned and silently led the hobbits onward. But his mind was far from silent. Had Sakura reacted in such away, simply because Sam had questioned his honesty? In defence of him? Aragorn found himself feeling rather flattered.

He was broken out of his ponderings by his scout's deft landing in front of him. Surprised, he spared a moment to inspect the tree she had apparently just jumped down from, but before he had time to wonder about it she began reporting.

"I can see no signs that we are being followed. Of course that doesn't mean we aren't. There is small village just under a mile from here." She finished, pointing in the appropriate direction. Aragorn merely nodded, inwardly pleased that they had made such good time. He intended to pick up some more food and supplies from there if they could, and possibly a pony – he suspected the hobbits would travel better with a beast to carry their packs for them.

They found the local Inn easily and secured a room for the night with little questioning. Sakura was quickly learning that people did not question a Ranger's business, and thus when they moved on the next morning a scraggly pony (whom Sam had dubbed 'Bill') had joined them, bearing the hobbits packs and a great deal of food donated by the ever-so-helpful Innkeeper. Sakura was pleased to find that with Bill carrying most of the weight, the hobbits were less disposed to dawdle and complain, much to her relief. Nothing however, could now make her lessen her ill-opinion of Samwise Gamgee, who'd secured himself in her bad books. Likewise, Sam was disgusted to find that Bill (_his_ Bill) was as much disposed to favour Sakura as he was to favour him. Sullen and Icy Glares were frequently exchanged, much to the discomfort of Frodo and Merry, though Pippin remained cheerfully oblivious.

It was a relief to all when they reached Weathertop, the old watch tower of Arnor, and set up camp.


	5. Chapter 4: The Knife At Her Throat

Sakura was woken by the flickering of light and warmth on her eyelids. Wait…What?

Her eyes snapped open to find that those idiotic Hobbits had lit a fire and were, of all things, cooking bacon in the middle of the night.

"What are you doing?" She screeched, waking Frodo with a jolt. He took in the scene and leapt to his feet, desperately trying to stamp out the fire. "Put it out you fools, put it out!"

Sakura spared a second to be thankful that at least one of them had some sense, before rushing off to find Aragorn. If anyone had seen that…she shuddered to think. She pushed the thought aside in favour of scaling the ancient pillars.

"Aragorn," she hissed quietly. Her night-vision had yet to return and she was having difficulty discerning one shadow from another. What she wouldn't give right now to be a Hyuuga. She was startled by his appearance between the pillars, and hurried over to him, but before she could even get a word out the shrill cry of the Ringwraiths rang out through the night. They both ran to the tower's edge, looking down to see 5 dark-cloaked figures making their way through the mist. They exchanged one horrified glance, and simultaneously dashed off in different directions. Aragorn cursed as he fumbled for his sword and bounded down the track as fast as his legs would allow. Sakura simply bypassed the path altogether, jumping directly from the top of the tower. Her landing made small cracks in the stonework, but she spared no thought to it as she jumped from pillar to pillar, desperately trying to reach the hobbits. She found the four of them stood back to back, fumbling with swords they didn't know how to use and sending terrified glances in every direction. She vaulted over a statue and landed with a dull thud, only to turn with fearful slowness as the sound of crunching footsteps reached her ears. Advancing through the gap between two pillars, was a Ringwraith. A Nazgul with black armour under its equally black cloak and an evil-looking blade already drawn, held in front of it. It was soon joined by four others, and they advanced with a terrifying deliberateness, enclosing the Hobbits and Sakura in a tight semi-circle. The very air seemed to freeze with their presence. With each step they took, the Nazgul lowered their swords, levelling them directly at their faces in clear threat. Sakura found herself frozen, even as the hobbits retreated backwards she could not take a step. They were truly terrifying.

It was Sam's cry that snapped her out of it. "Back you Devil's!" He yelled, swiping wildly with his sword, only to be thrown bodily against a wall.

She wasted no more time. Not even bothering to put on her gloves, Sakura leapt at the nearest Nazgul with a feral snarl, drawing back a hand already glowing green with chakra. She ducked underneath the blade it swung at her and delivered a staggering blow to its chestplate. The creature was thrown backwards into a pillar with a sizable dent in its black armour. ItBut in moments it was on its feet once more and advancing toward her. Vaguely, she was aware that Aragorn had come swinging around the corner, flaming torch and sword in hand, but she was already exchanging blows with her own foe; blocking its sword with kunai in both hands. It swung, the blade whistling over her head as she ducked, and she felt a searing pain reverberate through her skull as it brought the handle down on her head instead. She staggered back, flicking one of the Kunai at its head so as to have a free hand to heal herself with. She was surprised and satisfied when the wraith reared back with a screech, clawing at the knife stuck in its hood. She took the opportunity to deliver a kick that sent it flying off the tower. One down.

Meanwhile Aragorn was parrying blow after blow, encircled by three wraith's. He swiped at them with his torch, the flames apparently having some effect for it drove them back. He deftly ducked a blow, spinning quickly and lighting fire to the Nazgul's cloak, before completing his spin to meet a second with his sword.

Sakura ignored her bruised knuckles and took a flying leap toward another, which had Merry and Pippin cornered. She was struck bodily as the Nazgul swung its sword to intercept her in mid-air before her tackle could land. She hit the ground hard and grunted with pain, lifting a glowing hand to her bleeding side. "Sakura!" Pippin yelled in fear, and she was on her feet again, standing protectively in front of the two Hobbits. Her cloak flew dramatically around her shoulders as she flung it back, revealing hands bristling with kunai, in a scene rather reminiscent of her mission to snow-country so long ago. The knives flew through the air, their tags streaming behind them. The wraith stumbled as the weapons embedded themselves in its arms and legs. "Kai," Sakura hissed, and with a quickly formed hand-sign the tags ignited; blowing the wraith backwards with the force of the explosion and setting its billowing robes alight.

In the confusion of the battle, she hadn't noticed Frodo's disappearance. Her blood ran cold as she turned to see him abruptly appear, crying out in agony as a Ringwraith dug its blade into his shoulder. Blazing anger flooded her, and without a thought she wrenched the nearest pillar into her arms. **"Shannaro!" **she bellowed, swinging the stone pillar like a bat, intending to swipe the filthy creature away. But it dived to the ground, wrenching the weapon from Frodo's shoulder in the process. Her pillar whipped over its head and the momentum made her lose her grip on the stone; sending it crashing away down the hill. Aragorn took advantage of its distraction and threw the torch with accuracy that Sakura envied. The torch spun through the air, embedding the flaming wood in the wraiths hood and setting the foul thing aflame. The Ringwraith staggered backwards and let out a final piercing cry as it toppled over the ledge. She collapsed to her knees at Frodo's side, automatically drawing healing chakra into her hands. But it was useless. "I can't heal this," she realised in horror. "There is something poisoning his system, something unnatural. I can't draw it out!"

"Strider!" Sam cried in anguish "Help him Strider!"

Aragorn batted her away from the hobbit and knelt to retrieve the weapon that had stabbed him. "He's been stabbed by a Morgul blade." No sooner had he said it than the weapon crumbled in his hands. Sakura nodded distractedly, if it was a special blade it explained why her own wound hadn't produced the same effects.

"He needs elvish medicine." Aragorn hoisted the Hobbit onto his shoulders and they fled through the night, toward the land of the elves. The darkness was pressing in on them. It was smothering. Even trees seemed to hold them back, snagging cloaks and sleeves. Fear nagged at Sakura's mind, but she was going on instinct now. "Hurry!" She ran silently behind the hobbits, her every sense on the alert for pursuers, and the cries of the ringwraiths echoing in her ears. It was only Frodo's pained sobs that brought them to a halt. Sakura's hands were instantly on him, determined at least to numb the pain, while Sam and Aragorn hurriedly searched for a plant that could help slow the poison.

Suddenly she froze. Kakashi-sensei had always told her to listen to her instincts and right now they were screaming at her. There was somebody else here.

She had to find Aragorn.

He knelt in the mud, knife poised to cut away the stalks of the plant he held pulled taught in his hand, his head tilted at an uncomfortable angle by the woman that stood over him. Anger coursed through her veins.

"What's this?" The fair woman asked, with her sword under his chin. "A Ranger caught off his guard?"

She didn't expect to feel Sakura's knife at her throat.


	6. Chapter 5: The Horses at the River

Arwen stilled. She turned her head as much as the knife allowed, and her eyes widened to see that it was a human girl who had caught her. A young human girl. A young human girl with _pink_ hair. A young human pink-haired girl who was standing_ upside down on a tree branch with a knife pointed at her throat. _A very angry-looking young pink-haired human girl. Arwen carefully tilted her chin away from the knife, trying to maximize it's distance from her skin.

"No Sakura!"

Aragorn swiftly leapt to his feet, knocking Arwen's sword aside. Sakura noticed the flicker of unhidden fear in his face, and narrowed her eyes at him, but did not move her blade. He adopted the same soothing voice he'd used when they first met, and placatingly held up his palms. "She meant nothing by it. She is Arwen, daughter of Elrond Lord of Rivendell. An elf." There was an excruciating period of tense silence as Sakura considered this, before she slowly relaxed her stance - though still she did not remove the weapon. She addressed Aragorn in a cautious voice. "You know her?"

He nodded quickly. "She is here to help us."

Arwen carefully swallowed, mindful of the knife still hovering near her jugular, and spoke softly, "I have been searching for you for days."

"_He's been stabbed by a Morgul blade."_

"_He needs elvish medicine."_

Sakura abruptly lowered her blade.

"Help then." And with that, she disappeared through the trees.

Aragorn breathed a long sigh of relief. Though he knew that his young warrior friend had acted only his defense, he had been truly worried for Arwen's safety.

"What interesting friend's you have made," Arwen remarked, touching her throat. He nodded uneasily, and led Arwen toward Frodo.

Sakura wasted no time snatching the leaves from a trembling Sam and crushing them in a chakra-infused fist. She felt the juices dribble through her fingers and quickly applied it to the wound, wincing as Frodo writhed in pain. Aiming her chakra toward the nerve synapses; she pressed her glowing fingers to his temples, and numbed the pain as much as she could. His eyes were unfocused, his skin clammy and he was so pale he almost looked green. _**Kuso.**_

Suddenly, an ethereal light filled the clearing, enveloping the sick Hobbit in a warming glow. Frodo's eyes snapped open to behold a beautiful maiden on a white horse, riding through the forest as if sent from the angels themselves. Sakura's eyes rolled skyward. **Was the light show necessary? **She narrowed them at Arwen, for the second time in as many minutes. This person was supposed to help? But Aragorn was already lifting Frodo onto her horse, and she supposed that she had no choice but to trust this elf. A very small part of her mind suggested that she should really stop disliking people the second she met them. She quickly squashed this part of her mind. Leave the liking people to Naruto. Outwardly, she frowned as she realized that Arwen and Aragorn were wasting time arguing.

"I am the faster rider," the elf woman stated bluntly, and Aragorn sighed in defeat. Seeing Arwen mount the horse, and thus the matter resolved, Sakura walked over. She stood in stony silence next to the horse, folded her arms and met their questioning looks with a raised eyebrow. Aragorn was fast to catch on. He nodded.

"Ride hard." He spoke to Arwen. He turned to Sakura. "I hope you can run fast."

Sakura smirked, feeling oddly smug. "I'll keep up."

Arwen looked confused, but a look from Aragorn stopped her from questioning it. Instead she simply turned her steed and took off at a gallop. Sakura spared one last second for a triumphant grin, and spun on her heel with chakra already pooling in her feet. She darted off, leaving three shocked Hobbits and a bemused Ranger behind her.

It took her a grand total of three bounds to catch up to the speeding Arwen, and took to running parallel with the horse. The elf was amazed to find this small girl so easily keeping up with Asfaloth on foot. Aragorn had made an interesting friend indeed.

The trees sped by in a blur, 'til they gave way to rolling hills and coarse grass. Even Sakura, despite her distinct lack of equine knowledge, could see that the elvish horse was uncommonly fast. He was spurred on by his masters whispers of "Narulim Asfaloth," which Sakura guessed to mean something along the lines of "Go faster," and soon they were ducking and weaving through another wood. Sakura glanced at Frodo worriedly as they went; his skin was – if possible - even greener, and even from her distance she could see that his brow was soaked with sweat. **Not good.**

The tramping of hoofs behind them struck fear to her core. **Very not good.** The wraith's had found them. She turned her head to warn Arwen, only to realize that the elf woman was peering in fear over her shoulder and must have had already heard them. Did elves have better hearing than humans? She shook off the thought and turned her attention to the danger at hand.

"Get Frodo out of here!" She called to the elf, "I'll hold them off."

Arwen had no time to reply. At that instant all nine Black Riders charged through the trees behind them, left and right of them, closing them in. One was close enough to reach for Frodo.

"Shanarooooo" Sakura growled the word as she took a running slide under Asfaloth's legs and came up under the Nazgul's horse on the other side; a hand glowing with Chakra. The Rider swung its blade toward her, and she dived away, slapping the horses legs out from under it as she went. Guilt sprung into her when the animal let out a cry of terror, falling in a painful tangle of limbs, but she resolutely pushed it back. This was no time for a conscience. She used the nearest tree as a springboard to draw level with Arwen again, and tossed kunai at the two Riders who had gotten close. The aim was poor but it had the desired effect. The Ringwraiths fell back, and the dense spacing of the trees forced them to adopt a two-per-row type formation. Sakura gathered chakra to her fist and punched the ground behind Arwen's horse, sending a wave of dust and earth away from her. Arwen looked back in awe as the ground shifted.

"Keep going!" Sakura's voice came over the smoke, and she spurred Asfaloth on in elvish. _"Narulim Asfaloth, narulim!"_

"DUCK" Arwen barely registered Sakura's shout, before she threw herself over Frodo and buried her face in Asfaloth's mane. She felt the air whistle around her ears as something flew overhead and landed with a crash behind them. She sneaked a peak, wondering how Sakura had even gotten in front of her, and was stunned to realize that it had been an entire tree. Sakura landed deftly in the dirt beside the horse and continued running as if she'd never missed a step. "Try to lose them," she panted. Arwen nodded grimly, steering Asfaloth through the dense wood, weaving tightly between trunks and jumping fallen trees. Sakura had taken to the treetops. She was using a steady stream of chakra to keep up her speed running, while simultaneously trying to hold back the Black Riders. She couldn't use her techniques so effectively in near-constant motion, and it was frustrating. They just kept coming back.

Arwen charged downhill, aiming for the river. Asfaloth's hooves pounded down the dirt bank, slipping slightly in the mud, and finally with one great leap they were in the water, the spray soaking the horses flanks and Arwens dress. Asfaloth trotted calmy to the other side, and Arwen drew her sword as she turned to face the bank. There was no sign of Sakura. Agitated, her eyes searched the trees, until a flash of movement caught her gaze. The pink-haired girl flew from the treetops in a graceful arc. Alarmed, Asfaloth took a few steps backward before Arwen calmed him. She watched in amazement as Sakura flipped herself over in mid-air and landed with cat-like grace on the water. _On_ the water. Arwen could clearly see the fish swimming below the girl's feet. She had no time to ponder it, as Sakura slid into a defensive stance and the Black Riders crashed through the undergrowth.

"Give up the Halfling, she-elf." The Rider's guttural voice sent shivers down Sakura's spine. She opened her mouth to reply, the "Hell no!" ready to spill from her lips, when Arwen's voice carried across the river.

"If you want him, come and claim him!" Her eyes were determined as she held up her sword in defiance.

Sakura tensed as the Nazgul flooded into to River. She lifted her kunai in a defensive position, only to drop her stance in alarm as she felt water around her ankles. Her feet hadn't moved, which meant her chakra hadn't failed, so what-? Arwen's voice echoed in the canyon, in a strange tongue that Sakura could only assume to be elvish. Her eyes widened in realization – Arwen was flooding the river. Even as she thought it the water came crashing around the canyon wall, taking the form of charging white horses in the spray. The Nazgul were fighting to get themselves and their terrified steeds out of the water, but the oncoming flood was too fast. Sakura summoned every last ounce of her chakra into her feet and took a wild leap toward the riverbank, only to be caught by the charging water as she reached the edge. She was flung against the rocks with a crunch, and toppled forward with spots in front of her eyes. Her head was ringing, and the last thing she heard as she blacked out was Arwen screaming Frodo's name.


	7. Chapter 6: To Be An Emotional Trainwreck

Sakura woke up slowly, with much bleary-eye blinking and groggy half-awareness. Then her brain kicked in. She sat up sharply- and promptly smacked her head against somebody else's. She collapsed back onto the bed with a groan. "Nani…." She muttered, and opened her eyes to see a curious-looking Merry and a Pippin who was rubbing his forehead with a pout. She blinked rather unintelligently, "Huh?" Slowly she sat up again, a little curious as to why Merry instantly jumped up to grab her pillow – and even more so when Pippin grabbed it and fluffed it up, before replacing it gently behind her.

"Um…thanks?" She looked at them oddly, "No offense but, why are you here?" She realized how that sounded and quickly amended, "I mean, not with Frodo?"

Merry looked uncomfortable. "Well, he hasn't woken up yet…and since we heard how you helped get him here…and what happened…and Weathertop too…" He seemed to realise that he was rambling and flushed, "We, that is to say, Pippin and I, well we just wanted you to know that we're grateful." He smiled at her a little unsurely.

"And we know we annoyed you before," said Pippin with a lot less subtlety, "But we were thinking, do you want to be friends now?" He finished eagerly. "Pip!" Merry hissed, obviously embarrassed. Surprised, she looked hard at Merry and Pippin, thinking of how their acquaintance could have possibly gotten to a point where they wanted to be friends with her. After all, they only trusted her now since she saved their butts at Weathertop. And before that they didn't really like each other, though she certainly liked them more than Sam. (She was rather neutral about Frodo, though she suspected that having saved his life it would be rather hard to remain that way.) But now that she thought about it; that was it wasn't it? What started out as mistrust, grew into grudging respect, which turned into real trust, and now into- into what? Did she want to be friends with the terminally cheerful Hobbits? She winced inwardly as her inner-Naruto voice began a metaphorical speech on the importance of friends. She let her mind briefly wonder off topic, into the realms of 'I should really look into this whole voices-in-the-head thing…' before she reined it in and realised she still hadn't answered.

Merry and Pippin, growing nervous and beginning to feel rather rejected by her long silence, were startled to feel her hand on each of their shoulders. Sakura looked at both of them with rather sad eyes.

"I know I wasn't exactly easy to get along with either. It's just hard not to be wary in my kind of situation you know?" They nodded enthusiastically and - though Sakura was pretty sure that they still didn't know the half of it – she found herself smiling slightly.

"I think," she said slowly, "That I would like to be your friend, Merry and Pippin."

The two whooped and began a silly little jig around in a circle, and she was reminded terribly of Naruto.

Noon found Sakura wandering the gardens of where she assumed was Rivendell, since Merry and Pippin had rushed off for brunch and she had not had any other visitors. Vaguely she wondered where her friend Aragorn was. She mused on this thought for a moment; technically she had three friends now. "Heh, guess I'm getting better," she thought, "Naruto would be proud." Surprised, Sakura found herself blinking back tears at the thought of her vibrant best friend. She stopped, and stared at the ground. So much had happened to her over the past two weeks that they had flown by. She realised that she had barely thought of home at all, since waking up with Aragorn in the forest near Bree. She leapt up onto a tree branch and settled into the foliage to think. She had been lost, found, chased, attacked, and nearly drowned. In the face of so many more pressing matters, home had been pushed to the back of her mind. Here, in this perfectly peaceful place, she finally had time to be homesick. And with a jolt, she realised that she was. She'd befriended Aragorn because she was lonely, and she didn't want to be alone in a strange new world, and maybe just because Naruto would have wanted her to. She had agreed to protect the Hobbits for Aragorn so that she could go home, and because it's what Naruto would have wanted her to do. She had said yes to Merry and Pippin because they reminded her of Naruto. She missed Naruto. She clamped her hand over her mouth, as she began to sob. She missed Naruto, and Kakashi, and her mother and Tsunade and God-she-even-missed-that-nitwit Sai…She screwed her eyes shut. Dammit she was being pathetic. Pathetic and selfish.

She looked down at the branch she sat on, and then up at the surrounding trees. Gods, even the trees looked like Konoha trees.

And so it was that Sakura was found tucked up in a tree, feeling acutely miserable and sorry for herself.

"Sakura?"

Aragorn. She wedged herself closer to the trunk so as to be harder to see among the leaves, and wished fervently that she'd been born with green hair instead. She stifled her sobs with the back of her fist, and did not answer. The next thing she knew, the branch that she was sat on sagged with extra weight. She dropped her fist, shocked. Either she was far too distracted when crying or Aragorn was one hell of a tree-climber. Or both, she thought bitterly. His hand on her back slid her forward on the branch, and he threw his leg over to straddle it behind her. She felt his hands on her shoulders, and hunched forward, letting her hair hide her face.

"Tell me what troubles you Sakura," he said softly.

"Why?" she bit out, more harshly than she meant to. He didn't seem affected.

"Is that not what friends are for?" he asked mildly.

Friends. Just the word was enough to bring a fresh wave of tears to her eyes. Sometimes she hated being so damned emotional, she was always bloody crying.

"Tell me," his voice was soft, compelling.

She bit her lip, fighting herself. "I miss home!" she blurted out, hanging her head further. "I miss my friends, and my mother, and my village, and-" she took a breath to compose herself. "I miss home." She repeated in a whisper.

"What is wrong with that?' He asked in a soothing voice, "There is no shame in weeping Sakura, when you have lost something dear to you. When I am able, I will speak to Gandalf about your situation. I will not go back on my word."

"I…" she faltered, and settled for a teary "Thank you."

She turned to look at him over her shoulder, and gave him a slightly strained smile. To her surprise, Aragorn lifted a hand from her shoulder to brush a tear from her eye. His gaze was sad.

"You are strong, and to be human is not a weakness." He dropped his hand. "We all have our fears Sakura."

He slid off the branch and landed deftly on the grass, turning to look up at her.

"I'll let you think about it." He said simply, and walked away.

Sakura was left alone, to stew in her thoughts. She couldn't deny that Aragorn had made her feel at least a little better, but she would need a little more time to compose herself. She settled back against the branch for a nap – crying always wore her out.


	8. Chapter 7: I Like Your Trees

Feeling less like an emotional train-wreck, Sakura snuck into her room to find Merry snoozing in her chair, Pippin sprawled across her bed, and a plate of cold meats and salad between them. 'Awww' they brought her some, she smiled gratefully and carefully lifted the tray so as not to disturb them. She took it to the arched window and perched on the sill, one leg up and bent; the other dangling to the floor. She relaxed against the pane and ate quietly, enjoying the peace. She felt rather ashamed of her moment of weakness in front of Aragorn, but she was thankful for his words. It seemed there was a lot of bottled up emotion from the past two weeks which had needed to come out. She made a mental note to both apologise and thank him later.

The platter was quickly finished off, and her stomach emitted little growls of satisfaction that had her giggling quietly to herself. She was feeling more like herself. It was amazing what a long nap, a good cry and a meal could do for a girl's temper. She glanced over at Merry and Pippin, who were still, respectively, snoozing quietly and snoring loudly. So they were her friends now huh? She laughed a little to herself and stood up. It was a little disappointing to think that she might go home soon without really getting to know them. She placed the tray on the dresser, tossed blankets over the sleeping hobbits, and casually jumped out of the window – much to the shock of the elves walking below. She didn't even acknowledge them as she bounded over their heads into the trees. She wanted to thank Aragorn now.

As it happened, she found him. But she instantly felt like a voyeur as she stumbled on the intimate scene. He stood with Arwen in a close embrace, on a little bridge over a stream, under the softly swaying trees. It was incredibly romantic…and _private_ she reminded herself. She crept away, and with a few leaps landed in a tree some distance away. **So that was why he was so protective of her before.**

She glanced back enviously. Beautiful, brave, and totally in love with a man who loved her back. She sighed, wondering if Arwen knew how lucky she was.

…

…

…she then promptly smacked her head against the trunk. Now was not a good time to think of Sasuke. Instead she focussed on the trees. They really did remind her of home, and she sighed wistfully. She hadn't even thought twice before jumping into them the same way she had in Konoha. Her thoughts flashed back to that group of elves she'd passed. Or rather, that had passed under her as she leapt out of the window and over their heads. Oops.

She was going to have some explaining to do when she met this Lord Elrond that everybody kept talking about. She hoped he wouldn't be angry at her – experience taught her to be on the good side of nobles (no matter how much of a prick you thought they were – see Prince of Wave country mission) She relaxed on her branch, swinging her legs thoughtlessly as she glanced over herself. She needed a bath. She fingered the tears in her shirt and medical skirt. And probably a change of clothes. She grimaced, imagining herself in an Arwen-style dress. She was willing to bet that people here still had a lot of those old-fashioned modesty issues, based on the clothes. Then again, she hadn't noticed anything like that before. But she'd worn her cloak almost constantly in her travels with Aragorn and the Hobbits, so it may not have been an issue, that or they were too busy running for their lives to notice such things. If someone tried to put her in a dress that long there certainly would be issues from her end. She entertained herself imagining an old-fashioned maid fainting in shock as she declared that she wanted male clothes. Yes, she was definitely feeling better. The thought that she might go home soon was making her giddy. She grinned to herself, imaging appearing with a pop, right in front of her teammates, who were just about to depart on a frantic inter-dimensional search for her.

It had been a long two weeks, she thought ruefully, as the tendrils of homesickness crept into her heart again. She eyed up the trees, thinking of races with Naruto, and training with the team and missions where each bound brought you closer to victory. Sakura was struck with an urge. She glanced around, no hobbits or elves or lovers about. She turned her gaze back to the trees ahead.

**Ah, screw it.**

She launched herself forward with a chakra enhanced push, and landed on all fours on a branch across the clearing. She wondered how long ago it was that she started taking this feeling for granted? The feeling of the wind tugging at you as you flew from tree to tree, defying gravity? With that thought in mind, she pushed off again, flipping around to plant her feet sideways on another trunk, and using it as a springboard to flip back onto the first. When she got home, the first thing she was going to do was challenge Naruto to a treetop race. She was pleased to find that the homesickness was abated somewhat.

**Might as well have some practice**.

And she was off, diving through the trees. She launched off one tree, caught the branch of another and used her momentum to spin her body around it and send her flying in another direction. She flipped backwards off a trunk, planted her feet and somersaulted over one branch onto another. She ran with her arms flying behind her and tried to do it on all fours like Naruto sometimes did. She jumped. She bounded. She leaped. She ducked, rolled, spun, flipped, dived, and somersaulted. She tumbled out of the trees with a giggle as the garden came to an end and flipped herself over to land gracefully on her feet. And then to stumble backwards as she looked up to see several stunned elves, an Old man with a pointy hat and Aragorn. She flushed, conscious of the fact that she hadn't been conscious of anyone else at all during her wild run through the trees, and had consequently most likely startled a fair few Elves along the way. Not to mention this lot. Oops again.

She coughed into the hand to hide her embarrassment, and stood up straight.

Aragorn looked amused, and addressed the stately dark-haired elf next to him, "Lord Elrond, this is Sakura, whom I have been telling you about."

She felt her embarrassment return tenfold. Oh why oh why of all the people…she moaned in her head.

Lord Elrond inclined his head toward her, and she ducked a quick bow in greeting. She bit her lip awkwardly, as it became clear that they were waiting for her to speak. She opened her mouth, hoping against hope that something intelligent would come out.

"Um…I like your trees…"

**Fuck.**


	9. Chapter 8: Dropping Eaves

A rather mortified Sakura had decided to leave the trees alone for a while. After her embarrassing meeting with Lord Elrond earlier, she had made her excuses as politely as possible and fled the scene with as much dignity as she could. On foot. With an internal groan she dropped her head back to bump lightly against the stonework. She was perched quite unobtrusively on a stone statue – a horse that reared out from the wall of Elrond's rather impressive palace-like dwelling.

"Welcome to Imladris, my Lady." The stately elf had said. She tried to wrap her tongue around the odd syllables, and promptly gave up; returning to her musings.

So here she was, sat on a stone horse at least three stories up a building, after embarrassing herself. Again. She huffed quietly, annoyed with herself. Absently she wondered if Merry and Pippin had left her room yet, and found her gaze directed back toward that area of the building. She could see the arch of her window from here in fact, though she couldn't tell if there was anybody inside or not. Probably not, she guessed that they would have left for lunch by now, and stayed away for afternoon tea. She was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of movement from below. Curiously, she peeked over her horse's nose to realise that this statue, and another on her right, flanked a large archway that led onto a discrete balcony. She figured that the movement was some person or persons inside the room. Hearing hushed voices, and the scraping of chairs, she moved to leave. But then she heard her name.

Sakura slowly settled back against the stone wall, drawing her legs up to rest on the horse's neck. Anyone looking up from below would not see her. With strict control, she channelled chakra to her eardrums, magnifying her hearing. She heard the scraping of chairs settle, and the hum of voices gave way to a soft clinking of cups and plates. It seemed that the group was having afternoon tea. Steadily, the voices picked up again, and she unmistakably heard her name brought into the conversation.

"This Sakura girl, why have you brought her here Aragorn?" the voice was definitely an elf, and had an ever-so-slightly snobbish quality to it. She remembered some grey-haired elves from the group earlier and guessed it to belong to one of them. Some kind of council perhaps? She returned her attention to the conversation.

"You say she is from another land," another elderly voice joined in, and it did not sound kind, "How do you know she is not a spy?"

Aragorn's reply was short, to-the-point, and surprisingly tempered. Sakura found herself rather flattered at his coming to her defence.

"She has taken on the Nazgul with her bare hands - more than once! Do you forget that she was brought here unconscious? That girl has risked her life for all of us!" She got the impression that he'd turned to someone else, as his voice had softened when he addressed them. "Gandalf, she is a warrior from another land far from here, perhaps even another world. When I found her, she knew nothing of Middle Earth. Even the name was foreign to her." Aragorn's voice changed again, as if speaking to the entire table now. "upon finding that she was a warrior in her homeland, I procured her assistance in protecting Frodo and the others. In exchange for which I told her that Gandalf, with all his knowledge of the Magic of our world, may be able to send her back."

In the room, Aragorn looked to Gandalf with pleading eyes. "Can you do it Gandalf? She has fulfilled her half of the bargain."

Sakura held her breath, hearing this. Childishly, she crossed her fingers and sat forward on her perch.

The wizard was silent for a long moment, and unseen by the listening Kunoichi he adopted a face of serious contemplation, smoking his pipe in a distracted way. He had heard for himself such strange accounts of this odd pink-haired child's abilities - physical strength that rivalled an Oliphaunt, speed that rivalled an elvish steed – from both Frodo and Aragorn, and he could not deny that she deserved her passage home. But could he do such a thing? Certainly he would need to speak to her himself, to even have some clue as to how she came to be here, let alone how to send her back.

"It will take time," he said at last, and Sakura was surprised to hear how soft his voice sounded. "Alas, time, we do not have." Outside, Sakura bit her lip in angry disappointment.

She heard Aragorn thump the table with a fist, but he was cut off by Elrond before he could speak. Sakura started slightly, hearing the elvish Lord speak for the first time. She had expected one of the other two (whom she had privately dubbed Homura and Komura, after their depressing likeness to her village elders) to speak up again.

"The ring must be our top priority," Elrond spoke gravely, "But as for your young friend Aragorn, I shall offer her shelter and a home here, until such time as Gandalf has time enough." An angry scraping of chair legs across a wooden floor followed this statement, and she could only assume 'Homura and Komura' had launched to their feet in complaint. She was only too right.

"Keep her here?" One sounded appalled, "Did you not see her earlier? Such blatant disregard!"

The second quickly joined in, "And her clothing! Why, there was barely anything of it. Clearly the child has no sense of modesty or decency."

"You cannot expect her to adhere to our customs, her lands are very different from ours!" Aragorn cried out indignantly.

"Enough." Elrond's voice was stern, and at his next words Sakura felt a surge of gratitude for him. "She has proven herself a valuable ally, and I will shelter her here as long as she requires it." He levelled a firm gaze at the two unhappy elves. "And she may enjoy my trees as much as she wishes." Sakura got the distinct feeling that under all that stern stateliness, Lord Elrond was fighting a smile at that last sentence.

It was quiet, and night was falling. Sakura had yet to move from her spot atop the stone horse, as she mused unhappily over the conversation she had overheard. It seemed that she wouldn't be going home anytime soon after all. The rest of the conversation that had followed Gandalf's statement had provided some distraction at least, but now she was once again left the stew in her thoughts. She'd been so close! She sighed miserably, she couldn't blame Aragorn; he had tried. She briefly sidetracked her gloomy thoughts with mental images of punting those two old elves across the wood so they could 'regard' their precious trees up close. Grumpy old buggers. She just wished she knew what was going on. What was it with that ring and why was time of the essence? As if on cue, she heard the room below her entered again, and quickly froze with anticipation.

It was Elrond and Gandalf.

They spoke in tense tones, and she couldn't help but be intrigued.

"Sauron's army is massing in the East," Elrond spoke gravely, "and now you tell me that Saruman has betrayed us? Our list of allies grows thin."

Sakura's eyes widened. They were at war? The implications of this information struck her like a blow. She could wind up in the middle of a war! She wished more than anything to be at home, eating ramen with Naruto right now. And she wondered if the war had started back there yet. She hoped not.

She tuned in again to hear Elrond telling Gandalf "The ring cannot stay here."

"What then," sighed a weary Gandalf, "would you do? Frodo has carried it this far, we can ask no more of him."

She ducked down against the horse's stone mane, as Elrond strode onto the balcony. He stood tall and proud, with his hands clasped behind his back; an imposing silhouette against the setting sun.

"We will hold a council," he spoke finally, as Gandalf came out behind him and leaned heavily on his staff. Elrond turned to face him, "To decide the fate of Middle Earth."

Sakura stared at the sky. It seemed she had another secret meeting to listen in on.


	10. Chapter 9: Flustering The Maid

Sakura, in typical ninja fashion, bypassed the door in favour of jumping through the window. Once again she had stayed away from her room all day. Last night she hadn't even returned to sleep, instead finding a nice secluded place under the trees in the garden and sleeping under the stars. It was an altogether pleasant experience, waking up to the warmth of sun on her eyes and early-morning birdsong. Apparently Elrond had sent out invitations to his 'council' earlier, or else news travelled uncommonly fast, as already parties had begun arriving – despite his only telling Gandalf of it yesterday.

Sakura had skulked around the treetops and roofs all day, constantly amazed at the sheer number of different races that populated Middle Earth, as they arrived group by group. After all there were only humans in her world, albeit chakra-powered ninja ones. She had seen parties of elves, which she guessed to be from other elf-settlements. She saw human men and a large group of what looked like taller, stockier hobbits with incredibly overgrown beards. She later overheard that these were dwarves. To say that she was intrigued would be an understatement. Only her protesting stomach broke her away from her watch, and upon realising that she'd eaten nothing since last night, she finally made her way back to her room.

Sakura was only slightly surprised to –once again – find someone in her room. This time it was a harried-looking elf-maid, who was agitatedly making and remaking the bed, and wringing her hands from time to time. The very moment Sakura stepped off the windowsill the she-elf turned to her with a relieved cry of "Lady Sakura!"

Sakura was, to be frank, a bit stunned at being addressed as such. She stood a little awkwardly in front of the window.

"Um…can I help you?"

The maid look appalled, "I am here to help _you_ Lady Sakura," Sakura received a mildly reproachful look, "I have been looking for you all day."

Sakura gave her what she hoped was an apologetic smile. "I was in the garden…um…sorry?"

The maid eventually, after many 'Lady Sakura's and stammerings and general fluster, managed to relay that Lord Elrond was expecting her company for dinner, and that she –the maid- was to help her lady to prepare. She finished with an expectant and somewhat eager-to-please look.

Sakura was about to reply that she didn't need help, when she caught sight of that look. It reminded her a little of Rock Lee actually, and suddenly turning her maid away seemed a little like kicking a puppy; especially since the poor woman had been looking for her all day. Sakura gave a resigned sigh and glanced over herself uncomfortably; looking for something the maid could do for her. She looked up with a bright grin as a thought hit her. She wanted a bath. And a change of clothes.

A relatively short time later, Sakura found herself blissfully sunk up to her chin in warm water. She admired the ornate bathroom lazily, before her gaze landed on a plain white bar of soap. She wrinkled her nose slightly – the old-fashioned kind of soap, no doubt made with fat and all the works. Still, soap was soap, and she soon set about removing the layers of dirt and grime from her body. As she did so, she became aware of just how awful she must have looked for the past two days, and felt a fresh wave of embarrassment flush through her before she tamped it down. After all Aragorn hadn't looked much different yesterday either, and Lord Elrond was cultured enough to make no comment. She took a minute to reaffirm the 'I-don't-care-what-you-think' attitude she'd taken from her very first chuunin exam, but scrubbed with renewed vigour all the same.

Once her skin was to her satisfaction – that is to say, pink with all the scrubbing – Sakura looked around for something to wash her hair with. Nothing. She sent a longing glance at the pack she had brought in with her, wishing that she had thought to pack some shampoo in there before running off after Sasuke and getting stuck in another world. She huffed with irritation and glanced at the soap, but how was she supposed to wash her hair with that? The dilemma was easily solved when the maid returned, stepping into the bathroom with a dress carefully folded over one arm and a large drying-cloth over the other.

"Does my lady require assistance?" She asked, and Sakura found herself thankful for communal hot springs – being naked in front of another woman would have been incredibly embarrassing otherwise.

"Uh…my hair," Sakura waved a hand at it absently, wondering how exactly you went about asking how to wash it. The maid took the matter out of her hands. In much the same way that Sakura had bathed a patient in the hospital, the maid set about washing her hair for her. She lathered up the soap in her hands and rubbed the suds into the pink locks.

"Such an unusual colour," she murmured, "Like the spring flowers." Sakura pretended not to hear, concentrating on the nurse-washes-disabled-patient type scenario to make the whole thing less awkward. It didn't work so well. Still, it was over relatively quickly, and Sakura was left spluttering as a bucket of water was dumped over her head to wash out the suds.

She dismissed the maid as politely as possible, reasoning that she preferred to dress herself. A vigorous towel-drying and a flare of chakra later (a neat trick for missions) her hair was completely water-free, albeit stuck up at odd angles. Clean and dry, Sakura stood nude in the bathroom, holding up the dress the maid had brought her. She eyed it with distaste. It wasn't ugly by any means, in fact it was a rather becoming shade of green which would undoubtedly bring out her eyes. But it was _long_, she certainly wouldn't be able to run or fight in it. She sighed, remembering her thoughts from the garden and thinking that she really should have seen it coming. 'Still', she thought as she held it close to her body, measuring it against herself, it was unlikely that she'd be fighting anyway, and she hadn't really worn anything pretty since her gennin days. **What the hell.** She pulled the dress over her head.

It looked even better on, and for the first time in a long while Sakura found herself admiring her reflection in the mirror. Even so, after wearing shorts for so long it was disconcerting to feel air brush across her thighs when she twirled, and after a long moments deliberation she slipped her spandex shorts back on underneath. Sakura instantly felt much better. After a glance at her feet to confirm that yes, the dress did reach all the way to the floor (in fact it pooled a bit there and dragged behind her as she walked) Sakura strapped on her combat boots too. It was enough to make her feel like a Kunoichi still even in the dress, and no-one would be any the wiser. She let the maid back in to brush her hair, but refused to have it pinned back or styled in any way, preferring to have it let down and brushing her shoulders as it usually was.

The maid relented relatively easily and Sakura soon found herself being ushered down a hallway and stranded in front of an imposing pair of double doors. She gently (that is, without chakra) pushed on the left hand one, and it swung open smoothly to reveal a grand dining hall, in which many people milled about talking to their own party or other members of their own people, and very occasionally others. Elrond stood with Aragorn and the old man Gandalf, who still bore his pointed hat, 'meeting and greeting' as Tsunade would say, with a kind of general diplomacy. Sakura paused unsurely for a moment, before a hand at her elbow drew her attention to Arwen, whom she had not noticed moving toward her.

"Good evening," Sakura greeted her politely, making a mental note: **Diplomatic dinner – be on best behaviour.**

Arwen replied in kind, and seemed to gather her courage for a moment. Her light touch at Sakura's elbow told the Kunoichi that she was somewhat nervous for all her outward composure, her pulse was a little fast.

"I apologise," the elf said quickly and softly, "At the river, I did not realise you had not cleared the water."

Sakura was shocked, she hadn't expected an apology from Arwen, and if anything had blamed herself for not clearing the water in time. She was…touched.

"Do not blame yourself," Sakura said, but any further talk was interrupted by the appearance of a smiling hobbit by Sakura's side.

"His Lordship requests your presence Ladyship's" Merry declared with a sweeping bow, he took each of their hands in his own, "and may I say how beautiful you two Ladies look tonight?"

Sakura found herself smiling, and thought that perhaps she might enjoy this dinner after all. Merry herded them over to Lord Elrond, and Arwen slipped in to fill the gap between her father and Aragorn. Sakura found herself standing next to the Old Wizard, who gave her a wrinkled smile.

"Ah my dear, you must be Sakura."

She returned the smile, despite the disappointment that reared its head at the sight of this old man who could not send her home.

"I am," she replied, but their conversation went no further when Aragorn addressed her.

"May I have a word, Sakura?"

As they stepped out of the doors and back into the hallway, Sakura had an idea as to where this conversation was going. Aragorn's face shifted into an expression of weary disappointment, and even guilt.

"I spoke to Gandalf," he said, watching her face. To his surprise she merely gave him a sad-looking smile.

"It's ok that he can't help me Aragorn," she whispered, "I know that you tried."

"Elrond said that he will offer you a home here, in Rivendell, until Gandalf has time enough to examine your situation," he added quickly, "All is not lost."

Sakura smiled oddly to herself, recalling those words herself.

"And I may enjoy his trees as much as I wish," she murmured, but seemed not to realise she'd spoken aloud until she caught Aragorn's shocked expression. Then his eyes narrowed at her.

"You were listening!" He accused, and she instantly replied defensively.

"I didn't mean to!"

Aragorn stared hard at her for a moment before breaking out an exasperated laugh.

"I hesitated to tell you for fear of your reaction, and here you already knew." Sakura looked somewhat offended at this, and he clarified, "I did not wish to see you saddened again."

"Well," she said lightly, "If I am going to be here a while, I might as well enjoy the party." And with a swish of her dress and a cheeky grin, she disappeared through the doors and back into the crowd.

He shook his head in helpless amusement.


	11. Chapter 10: And It All Went Downhill

Sakura was accosted by Hobbits the minute she stepped back into the dining hall. A gallant Merry and a cheerful Pippin wasted no time in steering her toward Frodo, Sam and another much older Hobbit. The old hobbit had thin white hair and impressively bushy white eyebrows, almost (but not quite) as bushy as Gandalf's. His face was crinkled with a smile and lined with the kind of wrinkles one only gets from spending a lifetime laughing. Frodo took her momentarily by surprise as he flashed a beaming smile at her, and she was quickly introduced to 'Uncle Bilbo' as his saviour. Sakura found herself flushing awkwardly. **So much for neutral**. Apparently Frodo was now as eager to befriend her as Merry and Pippin, and Sakura found herself feeling quite bewildered and a little uncomfortable. Naruto was much better than she was at the whole friendship thing. Nevertheless, she spent a surprisingly pleasant half hour conversing with the old Hobbit; relating her part in the battle at Weathertop and the Great Chase which had gotten them to Rivendell, along with much embellishment from Merry and Pippin, praise from Frodo, and utter silence from Sam.

Just as she was on the verge of relenting to their pestering, and retelling all their favourite parts for a third time, she was (gratefully) interrupted by non other than their host himself.

"I am afraid I must steal Sakura away from you my good hobbit, for she is one of my guests of honour and has already been stolen from me once." Elrond gave a regal half-smile, and gently led Sakura away with the words, "I much desire to speak with you my dear." He glanced across the room and she followed his gaze to Aragorn, who had rejoined Arwen.

Sakura worried her lip between her teeth, wondering anxiously if Elrond had discovered her listening and was angry with her. She would have rather liked to have taken up his offer of a temporary home in Rivendell. It was quite beautiful, and reminded her strongly of Konoha.

He began "While I cannot condone eavesdropping, I am assured that it was unintentional." Elrond gave her a meaningful look, at which Sakura had the grace to look sheepish. "There is no harm done however, save perhaps for your opinion of my elders."

She looked off to the side. "They rather reminded of my own village elders actually, Homura and Komura…" she trailed off.

If Elrond heard the homesickness in her voice he did not bring attention to it, but instead renewed his vow to shelter her in Rivendell, should she wish it. He was answered with a warm "Thank you." He then adopted a more serious disposition, and it seemed that they had gotten to the true matter he wished to speak to her of.

"You see here, the great races of Middle Earth, gathered together in one place for the first time in a great many years," he gestured to the room at large, "Each are representatives of their people, and all are gathered for an important meeting. It is to take place tonight, after the dinner, when all are well fed and more willing to listen." The last part was added with that same wry half-smile, but he continued with barely a pause. "The meeting is to be a secret, speak not to any in this room of it. Those uninvited shall retire to their rooms after dinner, while those invited shall slip away and meet on the western terrace, where we shall hold council." Sakura kept her face as blank as she could, though she could barely hide her curiosity. Was he inviting _her_ to this meeting? She was minutely stunned to be treated to a true smile from the stately elf-Lord, and though it passed quickly she could see amusement dancing in his eyes still. She flushed at his next statement.

"Since I do not doubt your presence regardless, I extend to you an official invitation."

She huffed indignantly under her breath, much to the secret delight of Lord Elrond. This girl was truly an amusement, for all her wayward antics and strange ways. In some ways, she reminded him of Arwen's childhood years, and he concluded that he would not mind her staying a while, if only to brighten the treetops. He knew that if nothing else, she would be enlightened as to many things that were important, by this single meeting. But secretly, he dared to hope that Sakura may prove useful. The council was guaranteed to face objection and resistance, and her presence may be helpful to maintaining order. He was sure that at least two members of the assembly she would protect without thought, and he had heard enough stories of her strength to be assured that things would not get out of hand. He voiced non of these thoughts however, and instead announced to the assembled party that dinner was to be served presently. A subtle hand motion had the servants swiftly filling the table with food and wine, and a gentle touch at Sakura's shoulder steered her to the seat beside him at the head-end of the long table. The evening was full of surprises, Sakura thought awkwardly, as the chair on her left was filled by Frodo and Gandalf took the place opposite her, on Elrond's other hand. She was being treated as a guest of honour, and she didn't particularly feel like she deserved it. She wondered if Naruto felt like this when the villagers asked for autographs at Ichiraku.

Despite Sakura's initial discomfiture, the meal was soon underway with chatter and laughter aplenty, and it was pushed to the back of her mind. Sure, there was a potentially world-altering decision to make later, but for now there was good food, better wine and pleasant company. Aragorn had seated himself next to Gandalf, with Arwen next to him and opposite Frodo, and soon she found herself easily talking to her five companions without (much) discretion. While she was sure to avoid mentioning (and thus explaining) chakra and its uses, she told them anecdotes of her team and some of their more interesting missions, as well as her role as a medic. Mostly she told them about Naruto.

"When we were just twelve years old, our teacher taught us a lesson," she said, "And Naruto has never forgotten it. Kakashi told us: 'People who break the rules are scum, but people who abandon their friends, those people are worse than scum.' Naruto would break a thousand rules a thousand times over if it meant protecting the people who are precious to him." She smiled at this, and for a moment she imagined Naruto's sunny grin in her head and felt her heart crack just a little, because she knew Sasuke was beyond saving now.

"An admiral quality," Gandalf murmured with an approving nod.

Her glance slid down the table, and caught Pippin's eye. He abruptly glanced away, his cheeks a little red, and she wondered if he'd had a little too much wine. Her attention was drawn to Merry, when she heard her name. He was talking excitedly to a tall, grand-looking man in a red and blue tunic. Pippin soon joined in and she realised that once again they were retelling the tale of her fight at the old watchtower, and her Daring Dash with Frodo to the safety of Rivendell. She groaned almost inaudibly as Pippin began to mime swinging a stone pillar, and Merry slid his arm quickly across his chest in a "Whoosh" motion. The intrigued man looked up and their eyes met. She held his eye for a few long seconds before his gaze wavered and she casually returned her attention to her own conversation, in which Aragorn was avidly discussing the wonders of pipe weed with Gandalf – along with the occasional input of Frodo - much to the entertainment of the elves.

All too soon it seemed that dessert was cleared away, the last of the glasses drained, and the assembly dispersed. The sun was setting, casting a warm orange glow across the grounds as Sakura slipped away to the western terrace. With a critical eye, she examined the circle of chairs. A stone pedestal stood in the centre, and behind it a high-backed throne-like chair was placed, most likely for Lord Elrond. She was alone still, and slowly walked the circumference of the circle. From each place, no matter where one sat, each person would be able to see all the others, and each would have a clear view of the pedestal. She finished her circuit just as a scuffling sound emitted from the bushes ahead of her, behind the opposing row of chairs. She raised an eyebrow.

Sakura sat daintily in the endmost chair, facing the bushes, and began disinterestedly examining her fingernails.

"I recommend moving a little further down the bank, the bush will hide you better and won't rustle as much if you move accidentally." She said, as if to herself, before directing her voice over her shoulder, "And those alcoves over there will be a better choice than the pillar, they cast a better shadow and are less likely to be checked."

She did not once look up, and smirked a little to herself as the terrace went silent.

It did not take long for the chairs to begin filling, and she resolutely ignored the rest of the gathering, though she felt enough eyes on her. She looked up only when a pair of boots appeared in front of her. The man in the Red and Blue tunic held out a hand to her, and kissed her knuckles lightly when she gave it.

"I have heard much about you my lady," he murmured, "Such tales of extraordinary power, that I am inclined to wonder that they are not exaggerated?" Sakura took in all this with a straight face. Then she broke into a sweet smile, and tightened her grip. He felt his bones shatter. His eyes bulged and he clenched his teeth so as not to make a noise, but her grip was _tightening_. He let out a barely audible whimper. And suddenly with a flare of green and a wave of warmth, his hand was as usual and her smile was gone, replaced by a mildly predatory smirk. He flexed his hand curiously and moved to his seat, barely taking his eyes off her.

Aragorn took the seat next to her, and they exchanged a silent nod. No words were spoken. At last Gandalf arrived with Frodo, and the last two seats – those opposite Sakura and Aragorn – were filled. The air was tense, and expectant.

Elrond stood gravely, and extended his arms as if to encompass the whole circle.

"Strangers from distant lands, friend's of old," he began, "You've been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor." His speech was grave, compelling, and foreboding. Sakura sat forward in her seat, and with practiced ease began to commit his every word to memory. He spoke of unity, and destruction and darkness and doom. "You will unite or you will fall."

"Bring forth the Ring, Frodo."

The hobbit slowly approached the pedestal, and hesitated a moment before placing the gold band in the centre. His hand hovered for a moment, and then he retreated to his seat, slumped as if he'd not slept in days. Immediately whispers broke out among the circle. They were silenced as a man rose from his seat – the same man whom she'd seen talking to Merry and Pippin at dinner, the same man whose hand she'd both broken and healed – and his voice carried strongly around the terrace. He began walking toward the pedestal with slow steps, his eyes fixed on the ring, as he spoke of a symbolic dream. He was a good speaker, Sakura noted, a leader of some sort most likely. He reached out toward the ring but before he could touch it Gandalf flew from his seat. A dark and terrifying language spilled from his mouth, and echoed around them. For a moment Sakura was sure she felt the air freeze and the sky go dark. The elves looked pale, and winced as if pained.

"Never has that foul language been spoken here," Elrond reprimanded harshly, a hand at his temples. Gandalf withdrew, but did not apologise, stating that such evil would be spread everywhere ere long. Sakura swallowed, and shook herself out of the fearful stupor the words had put her in. Everyone present seemed thus affected, and for a moment each and every one in the circle was silent. The man, though, was not finished. He raised his hands placatingly, enticingly.

"It is a gift to the foes of Mordor." He then spoke of his people, who's blood supposedly kept the lands of the free races safe.

"Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy, let us use it against him!"

His voice was impassioned, and Sakura could not deny that he was persuasive; he had a silver-tongue and no mistake.

"You cannot wield it," Aragorn stated, "None of us can." His voice commanded the attention of everyone present. "The Ring answers to Sauron alone."

"And what," the man turned to Aragorn, derision in his voice, "would a Ranger know of this matter?"

Aragorn's answer was cut off by a blonde elf, who suddenly leapt to his feet. Sakura looked on interestedly.

"This is no mere Ranger!" he cried, "This is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Heir to the throne of Gondor."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "You're a _prince_?" she hissed to him quietly, but he ignored her and spoke to the elf in his own language. He sat down.

The man glared at Aragorn "Gondor has no King. Gondor _needs_ no King." Sakura's fist clenched.

The man's gaze flickered to her face, and down to her fist, before he levelled a haughty sneer in Aragorn's direction and returned to his chair. Elrond redirected the attention of the group to the matter at hand, stating that the One Ring could not be controlled or hidden, but must be destroyed. And in Sakura's opinion, everything pretty much went down hill from there.


	12. Chapter 11: That's What Naruto Taught Me

They were arguing. Loudly. In fact, Sakura and Frodo were the only ones still in their seats, the latter looking rather anxious, and the former severely tempted to hit something. 'Or some_one'_, her mind added irritably. Shards of an axe lay scattered about the pedestal, where the Ring still sat, gleaming in the fiery rays of the dying sun. She glared at it; somehow feeling that it looked rather smug for an inanimate object without a face…Sakura shook the ridiculous thought out of her head. She raised a glowing hand to her temple, dispelling the headache that the continuous shouting had brought on. Even Elrond had raised his voice, and Aragorn and the man from Gondor looked about ready to start a brawl.

"I will take it!"

Sakura froze. She turned her head slowly as the voices abated, letting her hand fall into her lap. Frodo was on his feet, and though his face was nervous and his voice wavered, he spoke loud and clear.

"I will take the Ring to Mordor," he swallowed as every eye fixed on him, "Even though… I do not know the way…" His voice trailed off, and for a long minute there was utter, stifling silence.

"Like _HELL_ you will!"

It was almost comical; the way that every head in the group whipped around. Sakura was on her feet and advancing. Her green eyes flashed with anger and her hands were fisted at her sides. Elrond winced as the stone beneath her feet cracked with each step she took toward the wide-eyed Frodo.

"Do you think I put so much effort into _saving_ your sorry behind, just so you could _present _it to the enemy to get kicked?" she screeched, towering over the hobbit.

Frodo almost cowered. Almost. Trembling, he swallowed hard and stood his ground. Defiantly he raised his chin and stood as straight as he could.

"I will take it." He stated firmly, despite the slight quiver to his lip. An angered Sakura was a scary sight to behold. For a long time she merely glowered at him, then her lips curled into what was almost a snarl.

"Fine." She bit out harshly, and spun on her heel with an angry swish of her dress. She left a shocked and silent gathering behind as she stomped away.

Frodo drew in a shaky breath as she disappeared from sight. Gandalf caught sight of his hurt face, and rested a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Sometimes my boy, you shall find that a woman hides her concern with harsh words, and her worries with anger." Had Sakura been there she would have laughed bitterly to hear the old wizard speak so much like one of Sai's books. But she was not there. In fact she was storming down the hallway toward her room, and looking fiercely determined. The maid took one look at her face and shivered.

Sakura caught sight of her, and wasted no time barking out orders.

"I need a change of clothes." She cut off the maid before she could answer or protest, with a short "I can neither run nor fight in this dress, and it will only get ruined." The maid wisely shut her mouth. Sakura continued.

"Get me some men's clothes. A skirt is no good to me. I need something I can travel in and some food if you can find it." The maid stood absolutely still for a moment, mouth open and a stunned look on her face.

"Quickly please." Sakura snapped impatiently, and the maid flushed, speedily disappearing.

Sakura pushed away the short stab of guilt she felt; there was time for that later. By the look of things the elves would wait very little time before setting Frodo off on his suicidal journey. She scowled. Not if she could help it.

Sakura pulled the dress over her head with one swift motion, and tossed it onto the bed. She strode into the adjoining bathroom, where her pack still sat against the wall, and kicked off her boots. The black shorts followed. She worked fast, firstly changing into some clean underwear – the boy-short type that any sensible Kunoichi was want to wear – and rewrapping her chest with bandages. She then wrapped her ankles too, to prevent chafing from her boots as they sometimes did on long journeys. Sakura retrieved her headband from the pack, where she'd left it for the dinner, and replaced it around her forehead. She stuffed the shorts into her pack and grabbed the spare roll of bandages, scooped up her boots with the other hand, and carried all three into the bedroom. The maid had been notably quick, but was nowhere in sight. On the bed was a pair of black leggings and a long-sleeved black shirt, along with her own red vest and tan leather medic's skirt (both of which had been repaired and cleaned).

Sakura pulled on the leggings first, approving of how they clung to her legs – they would be good for running in – and strapped on her combat boots over them. She snapped her elbow guards onto her bare arms and the black shirt went next, covering her down to her wrists. But the sleeves were too loose for Sakura's taste and she hurriedly wrapped her forearms with bandages to hold the material close to her skin. For familiarities sake more than anything else, she donned the red vest over the top, though she absently noted that it looked rather good against the black undershirt. The maid re-entered with Arwen just as Sakura was fastening the buckles on her skirt, and securing her kunai pouch. Wordlessly the maid crouched by Sakura's pack and slipped several food items into it: some small square packages which were wrapped in leaves, a flask and assorted nuts and fruits. Arwen stood in front of Sakura with red eyes.

"Keep them safe." She whispered, and Sakura felt a bittersweet twang of empathy for the elf.

"I promise." She replied quietly. Sakura then turned to the maid, apologised for her sharpness, and thanked her warmly. She swung her pack onto her shoulders, fixed her cloak around her neck and bounded out of the window with barely a glance behind her.

In three bounds she cleared the gardens. In two more she reached the gate, and landed in a crouch on top of it with all the grace of a cat. Below her, Lord Elrond faced an assembled group of nine. She had known without a doubt that Aragorn and Gandalf would not abandon Frodo, and was unsurprised to see that the other three hobbits had come out of their hiding places and joined the party. The last three were the blonde elf – whom Aragorn had called Legolas – the man from Gondor and the Dwarf who had broken his axe – she remembered that Elrond had addressed him as Gimli. And Bill. She smirked, seeing that their faithful pony was still with them, held as always by Sam. She stood up and leaned her weight on one leg, hand on her hip. Her shadow stretched out over the ground and the group looked up alarmed, only to see the light glinting off her hair as it was ruffled by the wind. She absently realised what a cliché dramatic picture she made silhouetted against the sky.

"You didn't honestly think that I'd let you leave without me did you?" She asked with a single raised eyebrow. Their faces reflected a varying mix of surprise, relief and intrigue. She was balanced on about an inch of wrought iron gate after all. The moment was ruined by Boromir, as was becoming the norm. The man of Gondor spoke excitedly.

"The Lady had come to lend us her power, she shall be most useful and welcome." 'Easily used', Sakura thought of him. He coveted powerful things.

Frodo replied offended, "She is welcome anyway!" accompanied by vigorous nodding on Merry and Pippin's part, and Aragorn was quick on the offensive.

"Sakura is not a weapon! And I have no wish to involve her in this anymore than I already have." The former part was accompanied by a glare toward Boromir, and the latter by a regretful glance in her direction.

"You don't get a choice." Sakura replied plainly, holding her temper. "I'm coming anyway." Seeing protests about to come forth, Sakura jumped down from the gate and landed lightly beside Lord Elrond. She looked to Frodo first.

"Where I come from, it is said that once you save a life, that life is your responsibility forever," she stated, "Of course, my mother said that of the bird I rescued from the neighbours cat," she admitted with a slight smile, "but the principal stands."

She faced the two men. "In my homeland, that is exactly what I am." They both looked confused at the abrupt change in the direction of her speech. She clarified, "A weapon. Where I am from, that is exactly what we warriors are considered to be. They call us ninjas and use us to fight. For a price." She added seeing the stunned and somewhat appalled expressions around the group. Sam's look of slack-jawed shock was particularly good. Aragorn stared at her with pity.

"You are not a weapon here Sakura," he said with feeling, "You do not have to fight for us."

"But I will," she said simply. "I am no scum Aragorn," she said, reminding him of their conversation at dinner, "You have earned my friendship. And Weapon or not, I will fight a thousand battles for my friends."

Sakura crinkled her eyes in a smile, "That's what Naruto taught me."


	13. Chapter 12: Ino Eat Your Heart Out

Sakura was having a heavy dose of hair-envy.

More specifically, Legolas-envy. At the present moment in time; they were wading through thigh-high grass, with a gentle breeze brushing the stalks over and the sun dappling the scenery with a soft glow. The breeze ruffled their cloaks in an almost teasing way. And Legolas' hair was swaying gently as he walked.

Her hair of course felt like a birds nest. This analogy was not helped by the occasional twig she still found as she combed her fingers through it, having spent the night in a tree (much to the amazement of most of the party, sans Aragorn). She had caught her own fingers tangled in it more than once, and she was sure that the colour was at least three shades dirtier. It hung dull and lifeless, and straggles of it stuck to her forehead unpleasantly. But Legolas' hair! It looked divine. Perfect. The long platinum locks hung utterly straight, and the sun shone off it just so. The guy was like a walking shampoo commercial. Sakura pouted.

She fingered her own locks sulkily, letting her head droop.

**Oh… **

Sakura's brain momentarily shut down. Legolas was, of course, wearing the same style of leggings that she was, albeit in green. The same style of clinging, leg-hugging, _ass-_hugging leggings. That was one nice ass…

She abruptly pulled her eyes up. **Just look at the hair…look at the hair…Bad bad bad very bad…**She closed her eyes exasperatedly. Ok, so she was still a girl.

She swore loudly as she stumbled over a rock. "_Kuso!_"

And, (**Oh-God-How-Cliché-is-this?**) being the gentleman that he was, Legolas turned around the help her up. She valiantly failed to push away her red cheeks, and mumbled a quick 'thank you' before pulling her arm away and almost tripping over herself as she hurried over to walk with Aragorn instead. Walking behind Legolas was clearly bad for her health.

…Well, at least he was pretty.

So far she'd done a pretty good job of keeping her thoughts away from Sasuke. Here, so far removed from everything that was happening in her world, it was easier somehow.

So, surely a little light ogling wouldn't do her any harm; after all she was still a teenage female regardless of her profession. And furthermore, she reasoned, she'd probably moped over Sasuke long enough; maybe it was time to try getting over him? A little unattached distraction would probably do her some good. Ino would approve (she wasn't entirely certain if this was good or bad, so she changed the thought to "Tsunade would approve") and thus justified, she spent the next hour happily distracting herself – in a completely detached way – noting that Boromir had rather nice arms, Merry (despite his height) had really nice legs, and that a beard on a man was not necessarily a bad thing. She could learn to like the rugged look, she decided. She was broken out of her musings by, oddly, Bill. The pony had simply stopped in his tracks and taken to eating a nearby bush, while stubbornly resisting any and all attempts by Sam, Merry, Pippin and eventually Aragorn to move him.

"I guess Bill thinks its time to stop," said Sam a little breathlessly, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

Gandalf chuckled, "Yes, I suppose now would be as good a time as any." And so saying he wandered over to a nearby tree, and found himself a comfortable place in the shade to smoke his pipe. The others followed at varying paces, but alas the pony would not take even a step. Eventually, Sakura solved the problem in typical Sakura fashion – that is, lifting the animal bodily and depositing him a few meters over, under the tree – Bill was sufficiently shaken to give no further resistance as Sam led him under a low branch and tied him to it.

Sakura jumped up as high as she possibly could, and ran up the trunk the rest of the way. She emerged through the topmost leaves, and sighed in pure enjoyment at the feeling of the wind on her face, cooling her heated cheeks. It was…refreshing, she noted, to be a proper teenage girl for a while. She rested her chin in her hand, and thought about Sasuke. She thought about her failed mission – the one thing she had tried especially to avoid. She had loved Sasuke, without a doubt. But she had loved another him, not this monster he had become. And so to protect the people who were precious to her – Naruto especially – she had set out to kill him. She'd almost done it too, she thought bitterly. But she'd hesitated at the last second, her damned heart still searching for a boy that just wasn't in there any more. He tried to kill her instead, and somehow she ended up here. Her eyes burned.

So she distracted herself again, and thought of Legolas' hair. Even Ino could not attain that level of hair perfection. This thought, unfortunately, led to the thought of ass-hugging green leggings. This then led to the disturbing mental image of _Ino_ in green leggings; which only led to thinking about Lee's infamous jumpsuit - and his insistence that everyone in Konoha should wear it. She shuddered; maybe she should take a pair of leggings back for him instead. She briefly tried imagining Legolas in a Lee-style body suit. She realised with a rueful mix of horror and fascination, that the mental image didn't look too bad…bloody elves and their pretty selves could probably pull off anything.

A shout from below broke her away from further torment of her own mind, and she made to drop through the branches. She paused, smirked, and instead made her way leisurely down the trunk. They hadn't seen this trick, and she was in an odd mood. She grinned in anticipation of their stunned faces. They didn't disappoint.

Just as Aragorn was preparing to climb the tree himself to find her, she appeared. Casually, as if doing nothing more than walking along the ground, she sauntered vertically down the tree-trunk with apparently as much ease. She reached the lowermost branch and walked along it upside down, finally coming to a standstill in front of them. Her hair hung away from her face, apparently the only part of her still obeying gravity, and she adopted a relaxed pose with her weight on one leg and a hand on her hip.

"You called?" she asked pleasantly.

They very slowly picked their jaws up off the floor and put their eyes back in. She cocked her head in query.

"What?" Sakura asked in the most innocent voice she could muster.

Aragorn recovered first, shaking his head in what could only be described as exasperated amusement. That girl never ceased to amaze. Her antics were a constant source of amusement to him, and as he took in the groups reactions he could certainly see why she did such things so often. If Boromir's eyes got any wider they would fall out of his head, and even the usually collected Legolas looked stunned. The old wizard was apparently on the same page, as his loud chuckle startled the fellowship out of their stupor, just in time to fully appreciate Sakura's forward flip off the branch and onto her feet. Sakura giggled to herself, so what if she was showing off a bit? Their reactions were always worth it.

Gandalf tapped his staff on a tree root to bring everyone's attention to himself, before addressing them in a compelling – but kind – voice.

"I do believe," he began, shifting to seat himself more comfortably, "That as a group we should make some small effort to get to know one another – an ice-breaker as it were – since we shall be travelling together for a significant amount of time, and some of us have already gotten off on the wrong foot." He deliberately refrained from eyeing Legolas and Gimli, or Aragorn and Boromir. "What is it they say now? Ah yes 'There is no 'I' in 'team' I believe it is." The old wizard smiled around his pipe, but his eyes brooked no argument, and feeling like children the fellowship gathered themselves into an unspoken circle about him. Sakura very nearly crossed her legs and put her hands on her lap – as Iruka-sensei had often had them do in their early years – but managed to restrict herself to daintily folding her legs at her side and leaning on one hand.

Gandalf sat up cheerily. "Now how shall we start?" The group waited patiently for him to instruct them, with varying degrees of patience, disinterest and disgruntlement.

"Ah! How about an introduction of your name first, and perhaps a hobby?"

Sakura perked up, "I remember when we first became a team, our teacher made us do something similar." She smiled nostalgically, "We had to say our name, one like, one dislike, and an ambition."

Gandalf nodded with considerably more enthusiasm than the rest. "An excellent idea, we shall do that then. Perhaps you should like to begin my dear?"

Sakura shifted her position to get more comfortable, thinking of just how much her answers had changed since back then. In her gennin days her answers had been simple: Sasuke the 'like' and Naruto the 'dislike'. But now…

"My name is Haruno Sakura," she stated, and quickly added that usually they said family names before given names in her country, "It means 'Cherry Blossoms of Spring'. I like eating ramen – it's a type of food – with my teammate Naruto, but I'll never admit to that," she added with a smile, "I dislike being considered weak. My ambition is to walk side-by-side with my teammates."

The pattern followed around the circle. Aragorn's answers were deploringly vague, much like Kakashi-sensei's had been, while the Hobbit's answers were focussed largely around food, ale and pipeweed. Sakura fought down a laugh when Legolas and Gimli answered "Dwarves" and "Elves" respectively as their 'dislike', and found herself oddly flattered when Pippin's 'like' turned out to be a mumbled "Sakura's hair".

She complimented his own in turn, as curls were much less common at home, and somehow the conversation deteriorated from there into a "Who-has-the-best-hair" contest (so named by Pippin). There was much dispute as to what exactly defined 'the best'. Sakura reasoned that hers must surely be best, because it was totally unique. The Hobbits teamed up in the defence of thick curly locks, but were divided when asked who of the four of them had the thickest or the curliest. Gandalf stated grandly that his was the oldest, wisest hair; while Aragorn laughed that his looked manliest. This was of course disputed by Boromir, but that particular victory went at last to Gimli, as indisputably one could not get more 'manly' than the beard he sported. Legolas didn't even have to say anything, and merely ran his fingers smoothly through his tresses with a meaningful look.

It finally came down to a vote – but since everyone voted for themselves a tie breaker had to be declared instead – and eventually Sam voted Bill the winner, because he had the most. This was cheerfully seconded by a great number of the party, and it was in good spirits that they at last renewed their journey.

Secretly though, Sakura thought walking behind the elf, she was still inclined to think Legolas the winner by far. She sighed good-naturedly. Those Damn pretty elves and their ad-worthy hair.

**Ino eat your heart out…**


	14. Chapter 13: Cursing Up A Storm

Aragorn was quite sure that the air was turning blue, what with the way that Sakura was cursing up a storm. At least, he was pretty sure that's what she was doing, as she was using the other language that she sometimes slipped into. In any case, she was huddled up with her fisted hands tucked under her armpits and her chin buried in the neck of her cloak, whilst enunciating each harsh word with a stomp of her foot.

Sakura was not having a good time.

They were now a week into their journey. Since the groups little 'ice-breaker' Boromir had apparently decided to smarm his way into her good books, and while his compliments were initially flattering (if rather cliché) it soon became irritating. She ground her teeth, swearing to every God she could think of that if he made one more comment about "Outdoing the beauty of even Gondor's most precious flowers" she was going to rip him a new one. Legolas and Gimli didn't help matters, what with their constant trade of, respectively, subtle biting sarcasm and outright blunt insults. Her more cheerful disposition from earlier had long since evaporated with the constant travelling, shortage of food and most gratingly the absolute void of baths. And shampoo. She scowled and swiped her dirty hair from her face – the soap here just didn't cut it. It didn't help that Pippin had taken to channelling Naruto in more ways than one – he consistently backed up Boromir's comments with the kind of enthusiasm only he and Naruto himself could muster, which made it much more difficult to feel justified in her irritation. Which, of course, only served to irritate her more.

Now, this in and of itself was not so bad, in the grand scheme of things. But just yesterday morning things had taken another turn for the worse. They'd been resting in relative peace on a rocky outcrop, while Boromir taught Merry and Pippin some basic skills with their swords, and Sakura looked on. It was Legolas who had broken the calm, drawing attention to a strange looking black cloud. It didn't take long to notice that it was moving fast, and against the wind.

Aragorn's cry of "Spies of Saruman!" was all it took for a mad scramble to ensue, as the fellowship made a mad dash to hide any traces of their presence. Sakura found herself uncomfortably wedged under a rock, pressed up against a panting and sweating Boromir. She held her breath as a hundred vile, squawking black ravens flew overhead, weaving and diving between the rocks, and let it out only when the birds were gone and the rest of the group slowly began to creep out of there hidey-holes. Her heart sank as Gandalf levelled a serious gaze on them.

"The pass is being watched. We must take another path…" his gaze turned and fixed on something in the distance. Sakura followed his line of vision.

It was a mountain. A _snow_ covered mountain.

**Oh, hell no…**

And thus it was that Sakura found herself in her current position – cursing her way up a mountain, thigh high in snow.

Sakura did not like snow.

She had donned her gloves not for the usual reason of smashing something, but purely for the sake of keeping her fingers from freezing off. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for her toes, and among the things she was swearing at today, the _stupid_ idiot that designed ninja footwear to be open-toed was the highest on the list. In order to prevent frostbite, she was concentrating chakra in her toes. The unfortunate side effect of this being; that if her chakra was concentrated in her toes, it was not spread along her soles, and therefore she was forced to wade _through_ the snow instead of walking on top of it and wasting a lot less time and energy. She glared sullenly at Legolas as he bounced past her, walking on top of the snow with ease. **What kind of freaky race weighs less than snow? **She grouched meanly, though she was mostly just venting. She was briefly tempted to just push him off the damn mountain altogether, but was somewhat mollified by the fact that Aragorn looked rather like he wanted to do the same. Snow for more than a few hours really wasn't good for anyone's mood. In her opinion it was meant for snowmen and snowball fights, preferably somewhere else, not for wading through and freezing your toes off in.

A shout broke her out of her grumblings. She turned alarmed, half-expecting somebody to have fallen off the path for real, when she saw Aragorn hauling Frodo out of the snow. She eyed the hobbit critically from her distance, guessing that he'd slipped and fallen, but he seemed unharmed. It was then that she noticed two things, near simultaneously. Frodo was frantically patting himself down, as if finding something missing. Boromir had that 'something missing' hanging innocently from his hand. Sakura hadn't forgotten his reaction at Lord Elrond's council, and subtly shifted into an offensive stance. She watched suspiciously. And judging by the way every member of the group stiffened, she was not the only one. Gandalf had a tight grip on his staff, and Legolas was fingering his bow. She was pretty damn sure that Aragorn had a hand on his sword hilt too.

"Such a strange little thing," he murmured, though his words were lost in the wind and Sakura had to make do with a poor attempt at lip-reading.

"Boromir, give the Ring to Frodo." Aragorn's voice was deadly calm.

Frodo just looked vaguely alarmed, and stepped forward nervously. Boromir slowly held out his hand, but hesitated to let go of the gold chain. That hesitation was all she needed. In a flash of ninja-speed, Sakura had covered the distance and snatched the ring out of Boromir's hand. She dropped it into Frodo's as if burned, but raised an eyebrow toward the man of Gondor in clear challenge. To his credit, he only faltered a moment before he ruffled Frodo's hair with a false laugh, and declared "I care not." Aragorn hadn't let go of his sword, and was eyeing her a little warily. That hurt. She scowled and turned her frown on Frodo instead, who cupped the Ring to his chest.

"Do not make me have to do that again," was her short, cryptic order; before she turned her back on the two of them and trudged away.

She flexed her fingers in front of her face, frowning at them. She'd felt…something…when she'd touched it. Whispers of power and greatness had brushed teasingly across her subconscious and for just a second she'd seen herself bring Sasuke home. Her heart ached at the thought. She clenched her fist, glaring at the back of her knuckles. It was false power, she thought bitterly and outwardly clenched her teeth, no better than what Orochimaru offered Sasuke. She steeled her resolve.

She would not be touching that thing again if she could help it. It was altogether too tempting. But still she could not help her gaze wandering to it every now again, where it lay snug against Frodo's chest.

The wary group resumed their track through the snow. But it seemed that the phrase "It must get worse before it gets better" was ringing false today. It was not getting better at all, though it certainly got worse. A blizzard picked up, so that not only were they all numb from the thigh down, they now had snow blowing directly into their faces too. The wind blew open their cloaks and let yet more precious body heat escape. Sakura had to grit her teeth just to halt their chattering.

She froze in fear as a rumble sounded somewhere above them.

"There is a foul voice on the air!" called Legolas over the sleet, and indeed just as she heard him, the voice reached her hears. There was a dark voice echoing around the mountain in a language she didn't understand. Gandalf raised his staff in defiance, shouting back words in retaliation as the knob on the end glowed. But to no avail. Sakura felt the tremor before she heard the answering rumble. She dived blindly, toppling a body to the ground and bracing on her arms as the mountainside crumbled, trapping them beneath a layer of snow. But even as they fought their way out, she knew it wasn't the worst to come. She reached into the hollow created by their bodies and hauled Frodo to his feet. A loud crack hit her ears. A portion of the rock had collapsed and a boulder was headed in a straight path directly toward them. They scrambled to get out of the way, but the path was fearfully slippery and the rock was moving fast. She grabbed Frodo's collar, grimacing as his gold chain brushed her knuckles, as threw him bodily towards Aragorn, out of the way. She dug her feet into the ground and braced her legs for the impact, drawing as much chakra into her fists as she could. She clenched her eyes shut and extended her fists immovably in front of her, arms ramrod straight, and readied herself for a painful collision. She did not wait long. The boulder crashed into her outstretched fists with enough force to snap both of her wrists, and she screamed as the pain lanced through her arms. But the surge of chakra she forced through the rock did its job. The boulder split neatly in two, and the halves fell away in different directions, narrowly avoiding Gimli in the process.

She collapsed to her knees with a whimper, cradling her useless hands to her chest.


	15. Chapter 14: I Lost My Cloak

Tears stung Sakura's cheeks. Her wrists were burning; even the snow couldn't numb them to the pain. Normally she would have healed a broken wrist without batting an eyelash. Pain would have come quickly and gone just as fast. But two? With two she couldn't work either of her hands the way she'd need to in order to heal. Fruitlessly she tried to angle her fingers in the right way, to hold her hand steady over her injury, but it was useless. She cursed herself.

**Stupid, stupid, **_**stupid**_**.**

She could have just punched it. Sure the icy path was far too slippery to allow her feet enough grip to make a decent launch, and a fumbled jump was dangerous in such terrain. Sure, the accuracy of the hit would have been greatly reduced by a blind jump-and-punch in the blizzard. _Sure_ it was moving fast. She grit her teeth, so what if it hadn't split into two neat halves? She could have grabbed anybody in the way of the randomly flying pieces, if she'd needed to. Probably. Surely it was a favourable alternative to this. For cripes sake, that move was _Naruto_-worthy. She growled in agonised frustration. The pain was only getting worse as the adrenaline wore off and now not only was she injured and angry, but second-guessing herself too. And what if something else happened? They were as good as sitting ducks and now she had two useless hands. They were on their own if something did happen. She couldn't even heal herself, let alone anyone else.

_**Fuck. **_She was starting to see black spots in front of her vision. **Don't pass out again **she pleaded with herself. She bit the inside of her cheek to jolt herself awake, forcing chakra to all her extremities to make her body to stay conscious. She didn't have a lot left.

She didn't even bother trying to listen as Gandalf argued with Gimli over another path, and nor did she acknowledge Aragorn as he finally succeeded in wading his way to her side. His eyes swiftly assessed the way that her hands hung limply from the ends of her arms; and how she was grimacing in pain. It did not take him long to figure out that they were broken. He did not bother to ask her to confirm it – clearly she was in neither the state nor mood to talk. He could almost hear the grinding of her teeth as she clenched them. He scooped her up without a word.

They made good time down the mountainside, though their progress was helped along by the fact that every so often someone would simply slide down on their backsides, intentionally or not. Sakura winced every time her arms were jolted. Unable to take it anymore, Sakura (through sheer willpower and the accumulation of chakra 'til her wrists were fit to burst with it) managed to cut off the nerve signals in her forearms. It lacked the finesse and accuracy of proper healing, but it was the only thing she _could_ do. At last her arms went blissfully numb and finally she allowed herself to succumb to those black spots still dancing before her eyes; despite Aragorn's frantic calls for her to stay awake and the screaming of her own subconscious.

Sakura groaned as she awoke, and found her body swaying as something moved beneath her. Her eyes snapped open in a panic, only to realise that she was atop Bill. The pony was following quietly behind Sam, and stepped gently as if aware of the injuries of the girl on his back. It took her moment to realise that there was a hand on her arm. Apparently the nerves were still out of commission, for which she was grateful. This would be far more painful otherwise. She brought a slightly startled gaze down to the Hobbit at her side. Frodo was looking at her worriedly…and guiltily? She dipped her head to the side in query.

"You ok?"

"I should ask you that," he replied with a slightly strained laugh.

"I can't feel my arms." Sakura answered him honestly, though she didn't really feel like explaining much more than that. She was guessing that hobbit felt like it was his fault in some way, that she was injured. She offered him one of her fake smiles, if only to stop him looking at her like that.

"Where are we going?" she asked a little louder, and was met with relieved expressions from the rest of the group at the sound of her voice. This was apparently the only incentive that Gimli needed to begin anew about the wonders of dwarfish hospitality, and the grandeur that was Moria. His voice soon directed attention elsewhere. She was glad to be out of the spotlight again for now, and instead of listening she tuned out and examined her hands. Somebody – 'probably Aragorn' she thought – had unwound the bandages she'd used to wrap her sleeves and used them to strap each of her wrists with a splint. Satisfied that the bones were set properly, she moved her hands gingerly to overlap one another. She tried bringing a flare of medical chakra to her palms, and happily noted that though she was well below her healing capacity, with her wrists strapped she could now hold them steady enough to perform some slow minor healing techniques. That was progress. She estimated that a couple of days of bit-by-bit healing would be all it took to return her hands to normal. Encouraging.

Sakura looked up as Bill drew to a stop, halted by Sam. Before them were an imposing rock face, and a still black lake. She glanced uneasily at the water, but shook it off as Gandalf approached what looked like a picture of an archway, carved into the rock. Sam helped her down from the pony, much to her surprise, and awkwardly patted her shoulder before moving away. She supposed that was as much of a truce as the two of them were going to get. She empathized as Aragorn sent Bill away, but she he was right – the mines were no place for a pony.

Gandalf was staring at the cliff face as if trying to bore a hole in it with his eyes. Legolas joined him, tilting his head to rest against the stone as if listening for something, while Gimli moved up and down tapping it in different places with the butt of his axe. She raised an eyebrow, bemused.

Aragorn soon appeared at her side – really sometimes she thought that man ought to be a ninja – and guided her to sit by Merry and Pippin on a nearby rock. He began checking that the splints on her hands had not come loose, and that she was in no discomfort. He showed no signs of surprise as she briefed him on what she'd done herself, explaining quickly that she could feel nothing, and that she could likely heal herself in a few days. He nodded silently, and merely produced a piece of elfish bread from his pack for her to eat. She flushed embarrassedly as he had to help her eat it, but Aragorn showed nothing but concern, and she smiled weakly at him as she finished. He moved away, and she was left staring at the water with an odd sense of trepidation. For almost two hours the group sat there, until even Legolas and Gimli had given up on the unmoving rock wall and only Gandalf was left muttering random words and poking it with his staff.

She nearly reached for a kunai when a torrential splash erupted from the lake; but it was only a bored Merry and Pippin, who had taken to tossing rocks into the water. She stared hard at the ripples, trying to figure out what was wrong with them…She raised an arm to stop Pippin from tossing yet another stone, and saw out of the corner of her eye that Aragorn had caught Merry's hand.

They were distracted by the scraping of rock on rock. Before a pleased looking Frodo and a happily stunned Gandalf, a door was appearing. It seemed that Frodo had solved the riddle, and the group joyfully set about lugging their packs inside. Even the prospect of a mine seemed bright in comparison to sitting about doing nothing, and Sakura was willing to be she wasn't the only one a little creeped out by the lake, which was utterly black and unmoving.

For a moment she thought that Pippin had thrown that last rock after all. But he was in front of her, wide eyed and horrified, and she turned with terrifying foreboding to see a glistening tentacle rising from the water. It lashed out towards the wall, and she dived to the ground to avoid it. She glanced over her shoulder with panic, only to find that there were half a dozen slimy tentacles writhing across the surface of the black lake. One of them caught Frodo. He was hoisted into the air with a terrified shout, the tentacle wrapped firmly around his legs and dangling him upside down. Arrows were immediately unleashed with a whistle form Legolas' bow. Gimli hacked off a tentacle heading for him. Boromir slashed with his sword, while the rest of the hobbits stabbed at anything in reach with their little blades. Confused and pained, the creature dropped Frodo with a screech. Sakura darted under its flailing suckers and caught him as deftly as she could. She fumbled a bit to balance him on her arms, wishing fervently that she could have had the use of her fingers to hold him properly. The hobbit grabbed her around the neck to steady himself as she took off at a run across the surface of the water. A tentacle caught her with a loud smack across the back, and she crashed into Aragorn, who'd waded into the water. The three of them scrambled for the shore.

"Inside!" Gandalf roared, momentarily blinding the creature with a flash of light from his staff, as a bulbous eye reared up into sight. Legolas took aim, and the creature let out a piercing howl as the arrow pierced its sensitive eye. The tentacles lashed out and the group made a mad dash for the door, which Aragorn and Boromir had already started to force shut.

"HURRY!"

Sakura felt herself thrown through the air as a tentacle hit her, and she landed roughly on her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. The back of her cloak was snatched by the same tentacle that struck her and as it began pulling on the material she felt the collar constrict around her neck. Her eyes widened in true fear. She couldn't use her hands to get free! She thrashed around, trying to get out of the cloak, but it only made it tighter. Her eyes watered and she felt the tears run down her cheeks.

A knife swished past her ear and for a moment she stilled in utter panic, feeling the cold metal against her neck. With a loud rip, the material came free, and belatedly she realised that Aragorn had cut her cloak away. His hand closed tightly around her arm and still gasping for breath she allowed him to drag her as they sprinted for the opening in the rock. He dived through behind her. The last thing she saw as the doors snapped shut was her tan cloak disappearing into the black water, and tentacles waving in the air. Then with a dull thud and the crumbling of rocks, their last link to the outside was stolen away by the ensuing rockslide.

Sakura shivered in the darkness, and feared it was far from over.


	16. Chapter 15: Only For Now

It smelt awful. With the opening to fresh air well and truly shut, the smell of the mine became stifling.

Sakura squinted for a moment as Gandalf lit the end of his staff, her eyes unused to the quick changes from sunlight to utter darkness to the dim light the wizard provided. As her eyes adjusted, she turned away from the door to scan her new surroundings with a practiced gaze. Outside the small circle of light it was pitch dark in the mines. There were fallen rocks scattered about, not all of them from the recent rockslide that blocked the door, bearing strange weapon marks and dark stains. Her eyes narrowed in trepidation. This time it was not the cold that made her shiver.

The medic-nin knew bloodstains when she saw them, though these were old, and as Gandalf lifted his staff higher it became clear as to where they came from. Bodies. She drew in a slow breath, sweeping a calculating gaze across the nearby corpses with medical efficiency. They had already begun to decay. Tattered clothes and rusting armour hung limply across exposed bones and rotting tissues. The stains under each one told her that most of them had bled profusely before they died, impaled by the multiple weapons left jutting haphazardly out of their bodies and no doubt left to die a slow and painful death. This was what the detached, clinical, _ninja_ side of her brain told her. The other, much smaller, part noted dismally just how desensitised to death she had become; as the hobbits gagged and Gimli let out dry grievous sobs for his fallen kin.

"This is no mine, it's a tomb." Boromir's horrified whisper cut through the silence like a knife, and Sakura bit back the 'Thank you Captain Obvious' type retort that leapt to her lips. Now was not the time. Instead, she stepped up beside Legolas and watched his examination of the arrows embedded in the chest of one of the bodies. Apparently he recognised this specific kind of arrow.

"Goblins," he bit out, obviously discomforted. She turned a clinical eye on the wounds. Most likely close range and the angle indicated a shot from above. She cast her eyes to the ceiling; there was a sort of ledge up there.

"Watch yourselves," she muttered with a meaningful glance upward. Legolas tossed the arrow away with disgust, but the set of his body indicated that he was listening intently for any sound other than the fearful breathing of their own group.

"I hear nothing," he voiced uncertainly.

Gandalf drew himself up, and bravely set out forwards.

"We have no choice, but to face the long dark of Moria."

Sakura fell into step beside Aragorn as they began a slow march onward, with Gandalf's hissed command of "Be on your guard" ringing in her ears.

She felt oddly light without her pack, but Aragorn had swung it onto his shoulders along with his own, and his expression had all but ordered her to make no comment. So she said nothing, knowing that she could hardly lift it with her hands in such a condition anyway, let alone utilise anything from it. But _saying_ nothing and _doing_ nothing were two different things. And Sakura would not do 'nothing'. She started healing her hands at short periodic intervals as they walked, all the while with her senses on high alert. If they ran into trouble she would not be unprepared. She narrowed her eyes at the green glow of her hand. _**She would not be a burden. **_It was not long until she felt something following them. She tensed. The thing – whatever it was – did not seem openly hostile, though neither was it friendly. But it did nothing, and since she was sure that not only Gandalf but Aragorn had also noticed it, and apparently held little concern, she resolved to let them deal with it in their own time. It didn't stop her leaving genjutsu traps behind them though.

In the deep of the mines, they could not tell how long they had walked, or even guess at the time. Sakura's body clock offered an estimate of about two nights – they had stopped twice to sleep – but even she had no idea what time of day it was, or even if it was day at all. The maze under the mountain seemed endless. She'd lost count of how many dark passages they'd passed by or how many times the path had forked. Gandalf alone seemed to have any idea where they were going. Even Gimli, for all his talk of Dwarfish hospitality, did not seem to know the correct paths to take, or the direction in which to head. Or else he was simply too sunk in grief to care any longer. And everywhere they went they found the corpses of dwarves. Some lay flat on their front, weapons protruding from their backs, as if they'd been running. Others had fallen in front of doors or gates, most likely trying to protect the dwarves beyond them, only to have been slaughtered where they stood. The stench of death was everywhere. Briefly Sakura found herself wondering how long these dwarves would have laid here, had they not chosen this path. It was pretty damn evident that the mines were not designed for visitors to pass through. Somehow the thought that they may have laid here for years, nobody knowing of their deaths, was haunting to her. Even shinobi did not suffer such a fate. There was always _somebody _who would know, who would acknowledge, who would honour their death.

Her hands were almost totally healed by the time that Gandalf called them to a halt, and at long last could not remember the way. She supposed it was only a matter of time. The group got comfortable – as much as they could on the rubble and fallen stonework– and settled down to wait. The silence was chilling. Though, Sakura privately mused, it was damned cold down here anyway. She mourned the loss of her cloak, forcefully circulating chakra around her system to subdue the shivers as much as she could. It didn't do much good.

Sometimes Aragorn was just too bloody observant.

She almost jumped in surprise when he dropped his cloak across her shoulders. But when he pulled her into a brotherly-like hug, she simply couldn't find it in herself to push him away. Instead she enjoyed the warmth, such as it was, and focussed on finishing her healing. A soft green light illuminated each hand in turn, shining all the brighter in the oppressive dark of the mine. She cast first her left hand over her right wrist, gently realigning tissues and mending them together, reactivating the nerves she'd severed one by one and stimulating blood flow. She repeated the process with the opposite hand, carefully repairing each part, down to the finest capillaries and chakra networks.

She had an awful feeling that she would need her strength, not least because the air became fouler with each step they took deeper into the mine. This place reminded her of Orochimaru's hideout in far more ways than she cared to think about. The sooner they were out of here the better.

She was distracted from her healing procedure by the hushed conversation she heard from Frodo and Gandalf. She had gotten beyond the point of feeling guilty over eavesdropping – it seemed to be the only way she ever found things out. They were talking about Gollum.

**So that's its name.**

"Many who live deserve to die, and many who die deserve life. The question is, Frodo, can you give it to them?"

Sakura personally found this a stupid question. Yes, in fact she could. But she appreciated the idea behind it. She found her gaze redirecting of its own accord to the shadows into which she was sure the creature had just disappeared. Pity…She drew her attention back to the conversation to hear Frodo rather sullenly telling the old wizard that "No it isn't encouraging at all" if the ring was _meant _to come to him…she snorted lightly. There was certainly nothing encouraging about that thing. She bit her lip as she remembered the brief pull she'd felt, with it in her fist, and shook her head grimly. She gently shrugged Aragorn's hand off her shoulder – though she stole the cloak – and stepped silently up the plinth where Gandalf was resting. She raised an eyebrow, tilting her head toward the shadows in a meaningful query.

"Leave him." The old wizard instructed her gently. He distracted her with a long, drawn out (and noisy) inhalation through his nose. Sakura wrinkled her own in mild distaste. It was a rather disgusting sound.

"Ah," he said cheerfully, previous topic apparently forgotten. "It's this way."

The other hobbits cheered up. "He remembered!"

Gandalf though, merely let out a short huff of amusement.

"No, but the air is cleaner down here. If in doubt, always follow your nose."

And with those words, the old man set off down the left tunnel, leaving the others to hurry after him if they wanted to stay in the light of his staff.

Sakura paused at the edge of the tunnel, looking thoughtfully over her shoulder. So, Gandalf thought that the creature, Gollum, would have a part to play before the end, huh? For now then, she would let it be.

She cracked her knuckles in anticipation. **Only for now.**


	17. Chapter 16: Second Nature

The tunnel was dark. The shadows pressed in on them from all sides, stifling what little light was provided by Gandalf's staff. Sakura fisted her hand in the cloak she still wore – pilfered off a (mostly) unresisting Aragorn – and tried to block out the shivers that this place incited. She'd been in worse places… She must have been, she was a ninja for crying out loud! Admittedly she was trying not to consciously think of them too much, but she was pretty sure there were some. Orochimaru's many lairs for starters. That cave where she'd fought (**AND beat! Hah!**) the "Creepy-Puppet-Freak" (as she preferred to refer to him) was pretty damn dark and creepy too.

Hell, she'd been in Naruto's bedroom! That had to count…

Sakura suppressed a shudder and crept along with the silence only ninja training could give you. She took some small hope from the fact that, yes, the air down here was indeed fresher. There was a noticeable dwindling in the number of corpses lying around too – the aroma of decaying carcass was much less prominent.

Her eardrums thrummed with the chakra she was using to enhance her hearing, desperate to catch a single out-of-place sound. She was subconsciously channelling chakra to her fists too, and when she finally noticed the build up she wouldn't have been surprised if sparks started jumping between her fingers.

'**More likely for a lightening-type…'**

She shook the thought from her head, chastising herself for the momentary distraction (and the pang she inevitably felt toward anything Sasuke related – but she imagined a monochrome version of herself taking that thought and smushing it between her fists to obliterate it – for some reason it seemed to work). She was _not _supposed to be thinking of him! Alas there was no pleasant hair-musings to distract her this time. Instead, she brought her mind back to the present with the lingering thought to test her own affinity when she got home. She suspected that Middle Earth would have a depressing lack of chakra-sensitive paper.

"Merry…"

Pippin's urgent hiss had the entire group tensed and alert. Had he seen something? Heard something?

Sakura tightened her fist until the nails dug into her palm painfully, her stance utterly rigid…

"I'm hungry."

…and slumped. She felt the deplorable need to keel over with comical swirly eyes and a huge sweatdrop. Instead she settled for slapping a hand to her head, and counted to ten slowly.

**He isn't Naruto. Don't hit him…**

There was a muffled yelp as Merry did the honours, cuffing his fellow hobbit lightly over the head. He then marched on unrepentantly; ignoring Pippin's mutters, and the group returned to silence with much eye-rolling all round.

Sakura was beginning to hate the oppressive silence down here. She would never complain about missions with Neji or Shino ever again…

And just as the thought hit home, several startled gasps broke the quiet. She looked up…and kept looking up. Her eyes widened unintentionally, trying unsuccessfully to take in the sheer size of the place they'd entered into. The ceiling was so high that she couldn't even see it in the dim light, but she suspected that at some point it hit the mountainside, as thin shafts of bright light cut through the gloom occasionally and criss-crossed across the enormous hall. Endless pillars reached up into the shadows, ornately carved and at least as wide as a house. There were doors and chambers branching off in a thousand directions, and discrete stairways spiralling up a column or slipping downward from a broken trapdoor. And each and every part of this incredible place was carved out of the stone of the mountain, chipped away and shaped from the inside. Sakura actually felt her jaw drop.

The group moved forward slowly, awed faces momentarily distracted from their fears. Even the grieving Gimli spared a vaguely smug look toward Legolas – who was rather significantly failing to hide his stunned expression. But of course, all too soon they were rather brutally snapped out of it. The fellowship rounded a pillar only to come face-to-door with a burial chamber. Bodies littered the floor around and beyond it, and a single shaft of light fell on the raised tomb in the centre of the room. Gimli let out a single disbelieving cry, and the group were left to run after him as he rushed blindly towards it.

Sakura turned her face away as Gimli distressed sobs and moans filled the air. The dwarf was on his knees, slumped forwards in a position she knew all too well.

"Here lies Balin," she heard Gandalf murmur, "King of Moria. He is dead then." The Old wizard sighed sadly, and Sakura felt a stab of sympathy for the dwarf. This was the cousin he'd talked about so proudly. It was the medic in her that squatted beside Gimli, and gently squeezed his shoulder. This was the part she'd always tried to avoid at the hospital, when there was that one person who just Could. Not. Be. _Saved_. It didn't matter how many times you memorised the stages of grieving, there was nothing that could be said to ease the pain. So she stayed silent, offering nothing more than that simple gesture, and knowing it still wasn't enough.

The human part of her looked away. The ninja part of her looked around, gauging the time of death, potential dangers, and potential _clues_. These bodies were not as old as the ones at the entrance. And that meant that they were killed _more recently_. Which meant that they were, in all likelihood, getting _closer_ to the enemy.

**Well, Shit.**

She swallowed, mouth suddenly dry, and raised her head to relay the danger to Gandalf – unofficial team leader – but stopped short as the Wizard passed his hat and staff to Pippin, and took a book from one of the dead dwarves lying slumped against a well. Even from her distance she could make out the splatters of blood on the cover. And then he began to read.

His voice was little more than a whisper, laced with foreboding and a deepening sense of danger. Terrifying snippets replayed over and over in her brain, sending shivers racing down her spine. The words of the dead were a horror unto themselves.

"Drums in the Deep"

"We cannot get out."

"They are coming."

Gimli was utterly silent and tense, and her hand slipped limply off his shoulder. The room was frozen. Her own heartbeat seemed to thud mockingly against her ribs as Sakura stared at the pitiful remains of the dwarves; trapped deep underground in their own glorious halls, knowing that they were going to die.

A resounding crash jolted everyone to attention. The tense air became steadily thicker as whatever Pippin had knocked into the well bounced loudly down the shaft, echoing deep in the mine. It was an uncomfortably long time until the silence returned, and the crashes faded away into the deep darkness.

"Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!" Gandalf's anger sliced through the air like a hot knife, and he snatched back his hat and staff from the remorseful and terrified hobbit. The Wizard spun around, more than ready to leave the foul place behind, when _it_ reached them.

A single, repeating sound. It struck true terror into each and every heart in the room.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

The dull beat echoed ever louder from below. Drums. Drums in the deep.

Sakura's eyes widened. It was getting louder. Faster. _Closer_.

"Frodo!" Sam cried, and said Hobbit drew his sword fearfully. It was already glowing blue bright enough to light the room.

"Orcs." His face paled.

Legolas, Aragorn and Boromir exchanged a single look, before they threw themselves at the doors. An arrow whistled past Boromir's nose and he stumbled back, before throwing his weight back against the wood and slamming it shut. He pressed his back against it, panting.

"They have a _cave_ troll." His voice could only be described as a sarcastic 'of-fucking-course'…Aragorn and Legolas roughly shoved spears and axes through the door handles, barricading it as much as they could. Falling into a fighting stance, Sakura spared no thought for what exactly a cave troll was - she was already securing her gloves and drawing out kunai. The hobbits fell behind Gandalf, who drew his blade and raised his sword, ready. As the three at the door fell back, weapons drawn, Gimli leapt onto his cousin's tomb with a roar.

"Let them come! There's one Dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!"

The drums gave way to screeching and thudding against the door. Aragorn readied his own bow as he took up his place beside Legolas, arrows already straining in their fingers. The wood of the doors shook with each rough blow, and at last a grotesque hand broke through, tearing at the planks. Two arrows shot true, and the bleeding arm was withdrawn with a squeal. But they were undeterred. Clawed fingers scrabbled at the hole, tearing it steadily wider. Sakura threw two kunai in deadly succession, and filled her fingers with shuriken in the seconds it took for Aragorn and Legolas to release another round of arrows.

The doors gave a last shuddering creak before they imploded, and a huge lumbering creature smashed its way through. Sakura released her volley of shuriken without waiting for the smoke to clear, and was satisfied to hear several cries of pain from their attackers and one pained roar. The troll moved with a clumsy bulldozer-like manner, faster than she would have expected but clearly just as dumb. It was an easy feat to duck under its flailing mace and deliver a chakra-loaded right hook to its gut. The troll lumbered back, before charging forward as if she'd never hit it at all. This thing was going to be more of a pain in the ass than she thought.

The others wasted no time engaging the Orcs that surged through the hole after their battering-ram of a pet. Gimli hacked them down with an axe in each hand, with a vengeful kind of glee. The small chamber was soon a mass of confusion, weapons and enemies everywhere. Sakura leapt up to anchor herself to the wall with chakra, sending several exploding-tag laden kunai toward the door to fend off anymore planning to come through. The explosion rocked the walls, and she used the smoke and confusion to send a second round of throwing stars toward the oncoming Orcs.

But no amount of explosions would distract the troll. She grit her teeth as she realised it was targeting the hobbits, had it been told to..?

The brute of a creature swung its mace toward Sam, and he dived under its legs, barely avoiding the mace coming down on his feet. He rolled out of the way, but even as the troll looked under itself in confusion Sakura was running toward it. She landed a chakra loaded kick to its back, and the troll roared in pain, swinging its weapon wildly. She was flung off and hit the wall roughly. But she was back on her feet before she'd even finished her fall and hit the ground running. Sakura physically blocked the mace as it came down toward Frodo, channelling chakra into arms simply to hold her bones together. The force behind the blow was almost as bad as her own punches, and this thing was using only muscle! She managed to utter a few choice swear words through her clenched teeth, but an arrow from Legolas hit the troll in the shoulder and the force was lifted as the creature reared back, pained. Sakura grabbed Frodo and rolled away in one swift motion, before she darted to her feet and yanked the hobbit behind a pillar to hide. She caught sight of Merry and Pippin pressed into a corner, behind another of the columns. Three poisoned senbon embedded themselves into the Orcs bearing down on them, and with a hissed command to Frodo to stay put she lunged forward to deal with the other six. She'd resorted to taijutsu in such close combat, conserving her weaponry and her chakra. The enemies were numerous, and fierce, but they weren't ninja and they certainly weren't fast enough. She ducked and weaved between their blows and their blades, delivering blow after blow of her own. Right hook. Elbow. Uppercut. A spinning kick sent one flying into the troll, but Sakura didn't have time to notice the regained attention of the creature. She dived forward to avoid a sword, only to catch her balance on her hands and kick back her leg, slamming her heel into an Orc's jaw. A handspring onto the wall cleared her of the bodies and she finally saw the terror stricken Frodo, pressed against the pillar as the cave troll circled it.

**SHIT**

Sakura tossed a senbon needle at the last orc before she leapt bodily at the troll. She slapped an exploding tag onto the trolls back, before flipping over its head and quickly sending a kick to its stomach. The creature stumbled away from them and unleashed an eardrum-shattering roar as the tag exploded. The creature scrabbled at its back, desperate to be rid of the burning. Pain clouded eyes narrowed on the pink-haired girl, and she realised with horror that the bright colour was probably the easiest thing to see in the entire room. She watched with dawning fear as it snatched up a three-pronged spear from the ground, holding it like a toothpick in its massive fingers, and charged with a speed she hadn't anticipated. Directly toward her. She launched herself out of its path with chakra pooling in her feet, only to witness in horror as she realised that Frodo hadn't gotten out from behind her, as she'd thought he had. The spear pinned him against the wall with a resounding crack.

Time seemed to slow down.

The adrenaline was coursing through her. Her hearing seemed muted. She was vaguely aware of Sam and Aragorn rushing toward Frodo, of Merry and Pippin charging fruitlessly at the troll who dared to hurt their friend.

She saw red.

"Shaaaa…" Her favourite word sprung to her lips as she launched into the air. "Naaa…" Her hand glowed green with chakra. Her eyes glinted with pure, bloodthirsty, unadulterated killing intent.

"ROOOOOO!" She roared the word as her fist connected solidly with the trolls skull. She felt the sickening crack of bone under her knuckles, and relentlessly drove her chakra into its head. The troll howled. She saw the elf turn, and didn't bother to call out to him. Her hard green eyes simply locked with his, and then she dug her fingers into its flesh, pulling its head back and exposing the tender neck. A dead-shot arrow from Legolas was all it took to end that agonised, dying howl.

She was at Frodo's side before she'd even wiped the blood from her hands.

"Frodo?"

Aragorn and Sam tugged futilely on the spear, but one of its prongs was embedded at least two inches into the wall. Sakura shattered the shaft with a flick of her wrist. They flinched. She ignored them. Her anger had not dissipated, and her chakra hovered menacingly under her skin, just about ready to jump from her pores and kill the next thing that walked through the door. Adrenaline had her heart pumping and blood pounding in her ears. She stared, almost unseeing, at Frodo's slumped form. Dead? Her eyes narrowed, gaze sharpening. It was subtle, barely there, almost impossible to see but… She wrapped her fingers around the three pronged spearhead, tightening her grip enough to dent the metal, and ripped it out of the wall with one tug.

He coughed. Wheezing as the pressure was removed from his chest, Frodo doubled over panting.

"Alive…" Sam whispered in awe, "You're alive!"

Sakura watched in mute shock as the hobbit tugged away his shirt, and revealed a shirt of glittering chain-mail. She listened with half an ear to the wonder of Mithril as she reached out a hand, and placed it gently against his chest, slowly easing away the bruising. She rubbed the blood from her fingers away from his pretty mithril shirt with the edge of her cloak.

Then she stood, and collected her weapons in silence, ignoring the stares that she could _feel_ digging into the back of her head. Now that their ring-bearer was alright, they had time to remember the way she fought. The way she _killed _so efficiently and seemingly without thinking. Sakura sighed and tilted her head to look at them over her shoulder, seeing a mix of awe, respect and fear directed back at her.

She wondered how to tell them that killing had become second-nature.

They wondered what kind of world she lived in.


	18. Chapter 17:Whatever Can Go Wrong Will

Fear.

It was stifling, surrounding. The fellowship fled through the great halls, weaving through the ancient pillars as fast as their legs could carry them and all the while darting frantic glances at the shadows. Somewhere in the deepness of the mines the drums were still beating, echoing from below, haunting them every step. Frodo's sword illuminated the path with a bright blue glow. Every second they expected an Orc to come swinging around the corner, or a volley of goblin-arrows from above. None dared to hope that the burial chamber was the last battle they'd see. They needed to get out.

Sakura's every instinct was screaming at her. She was enhancing her eardrums with chakra again, straining for the slightest sound, and the tiniest scratch at the edge of her hearing was all it took to send a kunai flying toward the ceiling. The Orc hit the ground with a thud. Sakura was scaling the pillar in seconds. The fellowship skidded to a halt below, backing into a circle, facing outward with weapons bristling.

And then all hell broke loose.

The hall was filled with screeching and chattering. Orcs streamed in from above, scuttling down every pillar in sight like overgrown ants. They darted up from the floor and blanketed every inch of stone with their sheer numbers. In barely a minute the Fellowship was entirely surrounded and outnumbered. Sakura flipped backward off the pillar as several more fell, each killed with a single punch, and each replaced as quickly as she killed them. She landed, using her momentum to slide backwards on her heels and snatched up her kunai from the first body as she did so. The Orcs jeered and clanged their weapons together in clear threat, apparently enjoying the torment. One made to move forward, and a senbon hit his jugular before his first step fell. An arrow whistled toward her, and Sakura snatched it out of the air without turning her head, tossing it back at another orc with deadly accuracy. She took a single step forward.

They visibly paused; measuring her up with the kind of leer that says "You think you can stop us girly?" She curled her lip in a semblance of a snarl. She got that look a lot. What was strange was that they hadn't actually moved yet. The Orcs held the Fellowship in a tight circle, but there was a clear meter of space between them and the enemy, and the distance wasn't getting any smaller. Nobody moved. Sakura locked eyes with the Orc directly in front of her, lifted her foot slowly, and brought it down in a single controlled stamp. The stone rippled. Like waves in a pond the ground shifted, sending Orcs tumbling to their knees. Another kunai found itself in Sakura's grip and she shifted into a ready stance, knives in front of her. She was dirty, covered in blood, and ready to kill something. The Orcs didn't move.

But something else did. Something had been awoken by the noise, and the battle; and attracted by the shifting earth and the scent of blood. A light flickered at the end of the hallway. Footsteps thudded loudly in the dark; a sound more fearsome than any drumbeat. Flames licked at the shadows. Sakura was fairly sure she heard Gandalf, just for a moment, stop breathing.

"A Balrog…" His fearful whisper sliced through the air.

The Orcs fled.

"RUN!"

Sakura looked into the angry red eyes of a burning skull, and wasted no time obeying the command.

Tunnels passed in a blur. The jeering Orc voices and the crackle of flames resounded behind them, around them; Sakura wasn't even sure if it was just the fear playing tricks on her mind or not. All she knew was that they had to get _away_. Far away.

She saw her shadow on the wall ahead, and her breath caught in her throat. That _thing_, that terrifying creature of fire, was behind them. She dropped back behind the others and lashed out a fist toward the wall. The tunnel crumbled behind them, and she spun on her heel, darting forward to catch up. It would buy them some time.

The tunnel opened suddenly into another cavern but they had no time to admire it. The second they were out in the open, arrows descended from above. Apparently the goblins or the orcs or _whatever the hell else was in here_ were back. Good news: that probably meant that the Balrog wasn't directly behind them anymore. Bad news: they were getting shot at. Sakura growled. It just got better and better.

A few well-aimed senbon deflected some of the arrows, but she soon opted for catching or dodging them to avoid losing her needles over the edge of the narrow path – there was a sheer drop down there. She spun her body to catch an arrow as it whistled toward her chest, before sending it right back with a short burst of chakra. She caught sight of a bridge ahead, and instantly her eyes flickered upwards. Distraction time. She drew in a deep breath, before she launched into the air and threw an exploding tag toward the ledges clustered with goblins. An explosion rocked the cavern, and bodies dropped like stones. She threw herself over the edge of the path, caught the wall with chakra and ran along it horizontally. Sure enough, the majority of the archers changed their trajectory to take out the biggest threat. Predictable. Sakura sneered internally.

She waited until the group were on the bridge, before she tossed another tag-laden kunai, intending to distract the enemy long enough to get them to the other side. But Murphy's Law kicked in at the worst possible moment. The rock slipped under her feet. The momentary imbalance in her footing was just enough to alter the trajectory of her kunai, and she watched in horror as it flew toward the ceiling. The group were already halfway across.

Her shouts went unheard as the explosion cracked the roof, sending a rockslide toward the bridge. The boulders crashed through it like paper, leaving only the portions of the bridge supported by pillars. Pillars which were cracking.

**SHIT**

Gandalf, Boromir and Legolas had made it to the other side, but Aragorn, Gimli and the hobbits were trapped on the rocking support. She had no time, her breath caught as another boulder tumbled toward her friends. Sakura took off at full pelt, using the rock face as a springboard to reach one of the ledges and from there launching herself toward the falling boulder. She flipped her body in mid air and extended her chakra-loaded foot. The kick landed and the rock exploded, sending debris flying. Some of it hit the orcs. Thankfully none of it hit the bridge.

She landed unsteadily on the same support as Aragorn, who was tossing the hobbits across the gap. Gimli was next, but he was putting up a fight about it. She launched forward with a growl, _**they didn't have time**_, scooped him up and threw him at the elf, who grabbed the first thing he could.

"Not the beard! Not the beard!"

The dwarves protests were cut short by a resounding crack and the support started falling backwards. Her wide eyes met Aragorn's with alarm. The ranger pulled Frodo forward to stand by Sakura, steadying them both with an outstretched arm. He grabbed Sakura's elbow with the other hand and she caught on to what he wanted. The three of them balanced as the pillar tilted back, and then as it began rocking forward again they threw their weight forward as one. The support creaked, shuddered, and finally toppled forwards to crash into the other ledge. The force threw them forward, only to be caught by the others, but they wasted no time on 'thank you's. They still had a hell of a lot of running to do. From what she could gather in Gandalf's urgent shouts, they had one more bridge to cross. She grit her teeth, determination sparking in her eyes.

**One bridge between here and freedom? Nothing under this mountain was going to stop them crossing it.**

She tightened her fists as they ran through the dark, eyes searching ahead for their ticket out, and ears straining for sounds of pursuit. Murphy wasn't done with them yet…

Her heart nearly stopped when she saw light again. Not the red, flickering light of the Balrog but the golden, pale light of the sun. Daylight. There was daylight up there. She squinted, it was high up, but she could see the ridges of stairs up there. Her eyes swept downward, and her throat constricted. A bridge. There was a bridge. It was barely a foot across and stretched, unsupported, across a wide chasm, but it was there.

They were nearly out.

Red light erupted behind her.

**Shit didn't even begin to cover it.**

They were so close!

Sakura dug her nails into her palm and smacked her chakra-infused fists into the ground in quick succession. The Balrog stumbled and fell back. She may not be able to fight fire with fists but she could damn well throw the fucker off balance and buy them some time. Gandalf was herding the others across the narrow bridge, Aragorn in the lead and the others following in a frantic line.

"Sakura!" he called to her, making quick motions with his hands. She streaked past the wizard, but skidded to a halt when she heard his footfalls stop behind her.

Gandalf stood in the centre of the bridge, facing the flaming creature, which stood uncertainly at the end. As it moved to take a step forward, Gandalf brought his sword and staff together, slamming the end down onto the bridge with a flash of white light.

"You shall not pass!"

The Balrog drew a whip from the flames that surrounded it, cracking it menacingly against the ground. But Gandalf would have none of it. He repeated his motion, thumping the end of his staff against the stone in an impressive display of power.

"_You shall not PASS!" _The Old Wizard roared, slamming the staff into the stone with enough force that Sakura was sure little cracks appeared.

To Sakura, what happened next seemed in slow motion.

The Balrog cracked its whip and stepped onto the bridge. The stone groaned, and as it took a second step cracks ripped through the rock.

Gandalf slammed his staff against the bridge.

The bridge beneath the Balrog crumbled with its last step. It tumbled into the Darkness with a roar and a last flash of light.

Gandalf turned.

Gandalf stepped forward.

Gandalf was dragged backwards.

The last crack of the whip had wrapped the flames around his ankle and in seconds he was hanging onto the very edge of the bridge and _slipping._

"Fly, you fools." His pained whisper snapped through the haze of horror, and Sakura darted forward to catch hold of his wrist, only to tumble after him into the chasm.

For a long second fear utterly clouded her mind. That tiny patch of sunlight was zooming away too fast.

Her kunai thudded into the wall, and the wire attached to it dug into her skin as she jolted to a halt, hanging from it. She watched in horror as the wire jerked. The weight on it was too much and the knife was slipping.

**No…**

And then she felt fingers scrabbling at her hand. She turned her fear-filled eyes to Gandalf. He was trying to make her let go, she realised, eyes widening.

"NO!" she screamed at him. But his face was determined.

"Protect them." He whispered, and then his hand was gone from hers, and she was flailing her arms to catch him again but he was just _too far_. She didn't stop the tears as she watched him fall away from her, into the darkness, while she hung limply from a wire, halfway down and all alone. His last words rung in her ears.

"_Protect them"_

"_Protect them"_

"_Protect them"_

"I promise," Sakura sobbed into the empty blackness, "I promise."

…

_**Short author note:**_

_** For people who don't know what "Murphy's Law" is, it basically says "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."**_


	19. Chapter 18: Take Me To Your Leader

_He let go…_

**The Bastard let go!**

Hanging by a single wire, Sakura could feel tears on her cheeks, but they went ignored. Her mind was whirring. Gandalf was gone.

A friend had fallen. Despite all her years as a shinobi, she had not yet lost a friend. The Konoha Twelve were as close as ever, united by Naruto. And here, she could admit she'd grown fond of the old man, not so much as her closeness with Aragorn perhaps but a friendship nonetheless. She'd respected him. He was going to get her home, eventually.

But he was gone.

He had _let go._

Anger flooded through her, spiteful and irrational, but it overcame the tears and so she welcomed it. He'd let her go, given up. And she'd watched her ticket home fall away from her and disappear into the darkness.

Sakura choked on the angry sob that ripped at her throat. How could you lose so much in one fell swoop? But even as the thought tugged at her mind, Sakura could not direct that anger at the old man for long, when he had sacrificed himself to save them.

Instead she directed it at the agent of his death. If this 'Dark Lord' wanted a war, he'd just made a formidable enemy.

The spark of anger bloomed, expanded and burned in every inch of her. She would not fail again.

She had a promise to keep.

Sakura's fist tightened. She reached up and began a hand-over-hand ascent up the wire, all the while glaring into the blackness. Her chakra blazed in the blackness around her, illuminating the wire under her hands as she pulled herself up. Anchoring herself to the wall of the chasm with glowing feet, she hesitated to pull the kunai from the wall. It was a poor reminder of the wizard's sacrifice, but a reminder nonetheless. She felt that there should be something to mark his death.

She left it.

Sakura crawled up the wall on her hands and feet, conserving chakra and climbing the old fashioned way where she could, and simply sticking like a spider to the surface when she couldn't. She couldn't even begin to guess how far she'd fallen before she'd stopped herself, and in the pitch-darkness she could barely see her hands in front of her even with the glow of chakra around them, let alone the bridge above or the glimmer of daylight. She was forced to feel around for handholds in the dark, scraping her knuckles blindly on the rough rock and leaving little cuts all over her palms. She didn't bother to heal them, and the sting was easily pushed to the back of her mind. She'd had far worse after all, a few scratches were nothing.

Sakura climbed for what seemed like hours, until finally, _finally_, she reached up only to feel thin air. She sucked in a breath, letting her palm fall to smack against the edge. Not the most painless way to find it, but effective; Sakura grasped the edge of the rock face and anchored her hand with chakra. The second hand followed, and at last she lay on her back, panting slightly with exertion. She was out of the hole, and as she raised her head to that still visible glimmer of light, she knew it wouldn't be long until she was out of the mine. Sakura pushed herself to her feet, fumbling around in her pouch for a soldier pill. She was all but blind without a torch or any other light to find her way, but she made do with charging a hand with chakra, and using to faint glow to find the wall. She felt her way onwards and upwards, eyes fixed determinedly on that single spot of daylight.

She stubbed her toes on the uneven stone stairs, her hands were bloody, her knees were bruised; but as she stepped out into that glorious light and felt the wind on her face, she couldn't care less.

She was out.

Sakura drew in several breaths of clean, sweet air, determined to cleanse her lungs of the mine. Her eyes roved around the rocky hillside, lingering on any traces that someone was here before them. She knew Aragorn would not wait around to be found by Orcs. They probably assumed her dead too, which would make for an interesting reunion…but first she had to catch up. She cast her eyes about for any tracks, any evidence at all as to the direction they headed. Aragorn was good, and the trail wouldn't be easily followed, but she wasn't a ninja for nothing.

The Kunoichi first, oddly enough, examined the soles of her own shoes. They were caked with mud, dark clay that seemed entirely suited to the mine it came from, and dried blood, probably from the troll. She examined the ground carefully. There were smudges of the same clay all over. So they had milled about first, some had wandered away from the group, but then come back and…

Sakura smirked in triumph, they had gathered again, and moved east. It was a pretty good start from a bit of mud. She didn't immediately continue, instead she ran about in a random manner for a good few minutes more. This was of course, for two reasons; the most obvious being to confuse any potential pursuers and make the trail harder to find. She had made sure to criss-cross the eastern trail several times. The second was simply to scuff the mud off her own shoes, so that she couldn't be tracked the same way.

Satisfied at last, she darted off eastward, eyes trained on the ground for any sign of the fellowship. She felt oddly proud of Aragorn for how hard it was.

The signs were subtle – the imprint of a single hobbit-toe; the tiny indents left by Gimli's hobnailed-boots; a strand of Legolas's golden hair, caught on a twig. The trail led into a stream and it took a good five minutes of searching to pick it up on the other side – a bent branch that suggested somebody had bent it out of the way – and at one point zig-zagged across a grassy plain. They'd used the animal-trails as much as possible. Inwardly she was thanking every deity she could think of for "Looking-underneath-the-underneath" lessons, and missions with Kiba. She pushed away the pang that sprung up at thoughts of home, concentrating on finding the trail. She couldn't detect anybody following her, but night was falling and she made sure to occasionally send a clone off in a random direction, just in case. The sun long since set by the time exhaustion compelled her to stop and sleep. Sakura found a hollow to tuck herself into, surrounded herself with trip wires and genjutsu, and finally fell into a fitful sleep.

"_Sakura-chan?"_

_The Pink-haired girl turned, startled._

"_Naruto?"_

_And it was. He stood in front of her, clad as ever in that garish orange get-up, head cocked to the side like a confused puppy._

"_Why aren't you coming home Sakura-chan?"_

"_I'm trying Naruto," she whispered sadly, "I am."_

_But they were no longer alone. _

"_Sakura?" The little voice sounded unsurely behind her._

_It was Frodo. The other hobbits stood behind him. _

"_Aren't you going to help us Sakura? You promised to protect us."_

"_I..."_

"_Forehead?" _

_Ino._

"_Sakura?"_

_Aragorn._

"_Sakura-san?"_

_Lee._

"_Sakura?"_

_The fellowship was behind her, the Konoha twelve in front, and she was spinning to face each of them so fast it felt like she was spinning in a circle. She didn't know who to face, or who to answer._

_But then they were leaving, falling away into darkness and disappearing one by one, all of them. Until only Naruto stood in front of her, looking at her with a pained expression she only saw when he was thinking about Sasuke._

"_Sakura…chan…" His voice faded as he began to fall away from her, out of reach of her hand and getting further and further…_

"Naruto!" Sakura woke with a jolt and a scream. She panted, hurriedly looking to see that her traps were still in place and that she was utterly alone. She scrubbed angrily at her face with the rough fabric of her cloak, she refused to cry anymore.

**Stop crying. **

**Tears don't help anything!**

Sakura drew in a slightly shaky breath, before she stood resolutely. When she spoke, it was into the sky; as if somebody somewhere would actually hear.

"I will keep my promise," she spoke with resolve, "_And_ I will come home."

And with that, she wiped away the last of the wetness from her cheeks, shouldered her pack, dissembled her traps and took off into the night.

If there was one thing Naruto had taught her, it was to keep her promises. Nobody was going to stop her now.

By the time she found the strange forest of silver trees, the sun was setting for the second time. She eyed up the trees, guessing that the fellowship was at least a good few hours ahead of her, and had probably arrived late afternoon. There was a chance that she could catch them up somewhere in this forest, and that thought was all she needed to plunge into the trees. As she got deeper, she felt them. There was the unmistakable presence of someone behind her, tingling every ninja-instinct she had.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. Not entirely friendly, but not outright hostile either.

Hmm.

Sakura skidded to an abrupt halt in a clearing, and crossed her arms, waiting for them to surround her as she just knew they would. She snorted inwardly as several golden-haired elves materialised between the trees around her. People here really were entirely too predictable. At least elves were supposed to be on their side.

One elf stepped forward, and she gave him a once over. Blonde hair, braided away from his face, armour slightly more impressive than the surrounding elves, bow held just nonchalantly enough to suggest that shooting an arrow through your skull was not out of the question, but that for now he wasn't going to. Probably the leader then.

She raised an eyebrow.

"And what," the elf stated in a dangerously soft, and slightly haughty, voice, "Is such a strange little girl doing in our woods?" He fingered his bow-string as he finished, eyes boring into her suspiciously.

Sakura was unimpressed.

"Looking for my friends," She stated bluntly, "So if you would be kind enough to let me pass?" She finished in an overly bright voice. They both knew she wasn't really asking.

The elf apparently had no intention of doing so. She heard the strings straining around her, and almost lazily tilted her head to look at the archer's surrounding her. Her face showed absolutely no fear at the number of nice _pointy_ arrows aimed at her person. The blonde elf narrowed his eyes contemplatively. Interesting.

"We do not allow strangers into our woods so easily little girl."

Sakura snapped her head back to him and _glared._

**Who the hell are you calling 'little girl'? Asshole! **

She was quickly running out of patience.

"Listen elfie," Sakura fought to keep her voice level, "The only reason I am not shoving a knife through your pretty little skull right now is that we are supposed to be on the same side. I don't give a flying fuck about your woods or anyone in them, all I want is to find my friends and continue on my merry fucking way. Alright?" She just barely stopped her lips curling in a snarl.

Haldir sneered at her. "Do you often threaten your supposed allies?"

Sakura's eye twitched.

"And in such vulgar language too," the elf's lip curled derisively.

Sakura stepped forward with an audible growl. Supposed ally or not, this guy was grating on her nerves and she didn't have the time or patience for this.

"One more step and we will shoot." He warned her coldly.

"Go right a-fucking-head," she spat, "I dare you."

Sakura strode forward, fists clenched, fully intending to simply shove the idiot out of the way…or perhaps throw him through a tree…

Strings twanged. Arrows soared. Sakura didn't even blink.

In a blur she ducked and spun, and in the next second audible gasps were heard as the girl stood unharmed in the centre of the circle, arrows clenched in her hands.

She locked eyes with Haldir, and slowly tightened her fists. The sound of splintering wood fixed his gaze on her hands instead. The shattered arrows fell to the ground in pieces.

"I will say this one last time," she said in a scarily low voice, "I only care about finding my friends. So either help me, or get out of the way."

Haldir swallowed, suddenly a lot more nervous of this seemingly fragile girl. But despite such dangerous power, she had not attacked, only defended, and while her words were hostile she had not yet backed them up. Still, it occurred to him that the friends she spoke of may well be the very group currently hidden deep with the woods at Lady Galadriel's command. He stood to attention, mind finally decided.

"I will take you to my Lady."


	20. Chapter 19: Taking On Galadriel

Sakura was less surprised than most to learn that a woman was in charge around here. After all, Tsunade was one of the most formidable Kages around, and training with her was enough to beat the surprise out of anyone. Unfortunately it gave Sakura a bit of an issue with respecting authority.

Her first thought, as she was escorted into a cavernous throne-room, was that the elf-woman in front of her was beautiful.

She didn't have time for a second thought, because the second that the Lady's eyes met hers, she felt a rather unwelcome intrusion.

**GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY MIND!**

Galadriel actually took a half-step backward, utterly startled. She'd barely looked into the surface thoughts of this girl before a monochrome vision had forcefully thrown her out, screaming what sounded like profanities in another language.

Sakura's glare could have melted stone.

"Perhaps I should have warned you, Your Ladyship," she pronounced the title with cold derision, "That I do not take kindly to such unsolicited invasions of my mind."

Her escorts stiffened beside her.

"My, my," Galadriel murmured in surprise. "What is your name child?"

Sakura shifted her weight to lean on one leg; hip jutted out in a typical 'defiant-teen' type pose, and folded her arms.

"In my country, it is considered very rude to demand another's name, without giving your own first." To hell with authority, Sakura wasn't the Godaime's apprentice for nothing. She'd had enough of these haughty elves.

Again, Galadriel found herself most surprised by this strange human girl. The child looked no older than 16, a babe to an elf, with the most unusual colouring she'd ever beheld. Pink hair and green eyes! The girl was streaked with grime and even blood, her clothes were torn and as dirty as she was herself, and yet she stood before them with eyes that shone with defiance and a mind that could not be entered.

Intriguing.

The Lady offered Sakura a serene smile.

"My apologies. I am Galadriel, the Lady of the Wood." Galadriel, lifted the hand held by the elfin man beside her, indicating him by their entwined hands, "This is my husband, the Lord Celeborn. May I ask your name?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes for a second, but straightened her posture. She'd made her point, and making any more enemies was foolish.

"I am Sakura, of the Village Hidden in the Leaves," she stated, trying to imitate the way people had introduced themselves here for clarities sake more than anything else, and tilted her upper body in a semi-bow. "I am looking for my friends."

Galadriel merely nodded, while Celeborn stepped forward to question her.

"I have not heard of such a place."

"You wouldn't have," was Sakura's mild reply.

"Your friends then, may I ask who they are?"

Sakura was more inclined to be respectful to the reserved and soft spoken man. So far he had done nothing to incite her attitude, and addressed her politely, despite the command hidden in the question. She lifted her chin, a sign that she'd recognised it, but replied in a similar tone, showing that for now she was willing to play nice. The subtleties of diplomacy were something her blonde friend would never quite get, but Sakura was matching the Lord and Lady move for move. She would not back down so easily.

"A man, a ranger by the name of Aragorn," she saw the recognition spark in their eyes, and continued in the same pseudo-respectful tone, "and another, by the name Boromir. An Elf, Legolas Greenleaf from Mirkwood, a dwarf and four hobbits."

"I see," Galadriel was looking at her with blatant interest now, and His Lordship did little to hide his own surprise. "So you are a part of that group…But how is it you came to be separated, I wonder?"

Celeborn spared her from answering, for the present, by addressing an order to her escorts.

"Haldir, I do not think your men shall be needed any longer. Fetch Aragorn, and bring him here. I wish to speak with our guest some more."

The blonde elf bowed deeply and with a motion of his hand the archers filed out after him, leaving Sakura alone with the Lord and Lady. For a long moment they merely regarded each other.

"Now, Sakura of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, if you could be so kind as to explain a few things to me…"

Sakura closed her eyes, with a weary sigh. This was the last thing she wanted to into right now. She settled for a shortened version of what she'd told Aragorn upon their first meeting.

"I am from a land far from here, possibly another world entirely. I came here by accident and do not know yet how to return, however I have sworn to protect Frodo and to offer my aide as long as I am here."

She opened her eyes and looked up at them through her lashes, wondering just how much she was going to have to tell before Aragorn got here. But as it was, at that moment the Ranger announced his presence with a stunned exclamation.

"_Sakura?"_

She spun around, and sighed slightly in relief to see him clean and unharmed.

"Aragorn," she smiled at him tiredly.

The next thing she knew she was pulled roughly into a tight hug. She gasped slightly in surprise. Aragorn wrapped his arms around her shoulders tightly and pressed his cheek against her hair. For a moment, she was stunned still. Then Sakura sagged, wrapping her arms around his back. She felt the urge to cry again, and buried her face against his chest, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I thought you were dead." He whispered hoarsely. "We…We saw you fall…"

Sakura pulled back in his arms to give him a slightly strained smile.

"Come on Aragorn," she whispered with a choked laugh, "You've seen me climb walls before."

He muttered a distracted response, patting down her hair and pulling her to him again, pressing a relieved kiss to her forehead.

The elves watched in mute astonishment. To see such emotion, from a man usually so controlled was…astounding. Yet here was that same man, embracing this odd girl like a father would a lost daughter.

"So," murmured Galadriel to her husband, "The girl fell with Gandalf."

"So it would seem. But then, how is it that she is here, and he is not?" Celeborn answered.

It seemed however, that Celeborn and Galadriel were about to discover the same lesson that Elrond had, so many weeks ago at his grand counsel. The Fellowship was not easily separated, and certain members were all too happy to attend certain private meetings, whether invited or not. The door slammed open as poor Haldir was pushed unheeded out of the way by four very stubborn Hobbits, a man and a dwarf. Legolas paused in the door to steady his kinsman and to direct an apologetic look toward the Lord and Lady.

"Sakura!"

"Sakura!"

Merry and Pippin's overjoyed voices echoed briefly in the room, they were so loud. The Hobbits ran across the room, almost elbowing Aragorn out of the way in their rush to tackle the girl in a hug. Sakura soon became the filling of a Hobbit-sandwich, but before she could even begin to wriggle free she was plucked into the air and spun around by a laughing Boromir. It was all she could do to throw her arms around his neck with an "Eep!" of surprise, and hang on.

"B-Boromir!" Sakura half-laughed-half-gasped as he dropped her again; only to clap her on the back with his own deep-throated chuckle.

She was bear-hugged by Gimli, had her shoulder squeezed by Legolas, and patted on the back by Sam.

They'd actually missed her, she realised, and for some reason that she hadn't thought they would bothered her somewhat.

Frodo's light touch to her hand brought her attention to the hobbit. He looked up at her with eyes so filled with emotion that the laugh died in her throat and the urge to cry came over her again.

"Frodo," she whispered, "I-I couldn't…I tried," she swallowed, eyes glassy, and suddenly wrapped her arms around him in an almost desperate hug.

"I'm so sorry Frodo."

"I understand Sakura," he murmured in her ear. "I'm glad _you're_ alright."

**Dammit it was hard not to cry when he said that. **

She pulled away with a smile that was only slightly shaky, and took a few deep, calming breaths. No tears. She was getting better. Now that she could get a good look at them all, it seemed they'd all been cleaned, probably fed, and given a change of clothes. She glanced back towards Galadriel and Celeborn.

"If you do not mind, my Lord and Lady, I would like to go with my friends now."

Galadriel stood, and descended slowly from the dais where the thrones sat.

"You must be weary, and hungry. Go with your friends. I shall have a maid attend to you."

Sakura raised a pink eyebrow, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth, as it were. As it happened they'd barely herded her into their little campsite before a demure elf-maid appeared with the promise of a bath, and a change of clothes. She didn't even hesitate, happily surrendering her pack to Aragorn and following without question.

Sakura groaned out loud in sheer pleasure as she sank into clean hot water. By the time she'd finished scrubbing the several layers of mud, blood and general grime off her skin, washed her hair several times, and used up several bars of soap, the water was cold and unrecognisable. She grimaced slightly, but the maid appeared with a bucket of clean lukewarm water which was dumped unceremoniously over her head as Sakura stood, rinsing away the last vestiges of the dirty water. The maid left while Sakura dried herself. She found that her old clothes had been whisked away somewhere, and that a clean pair of green leggings and a short white tunic had appeared, neatly folded and waiting for her. Her boots had been cleaned and left out, and her weapons pouches had had the blood wiped away from them, but were otherwise untouched. She dressed quickly, and was surprised to realise how long her hair had gotten. It was brushing her clavicle now. She might have to take a kunai to it soon, but for the time being she simply tied it out of the way and fixed her headband in place.

The maid was nowhere in sight, so she simply snapped on her boots, gathered up her weapons pouches and made her own way back.

She arrived at the campsite to find that her tent had been pitched for her, her pack was inside and a blanket was laid out for her, and a platter full of fruits, nuts and cold meats was sat on the blanket waiting for her. She shouted a quick 'thank you' to Aragorn correctly guessing that, after kidnapping her pack, he had set up her tent for her. Then her stomach growled and she dug into the food happily. Full and clean at last, Sakura fell into a much more peaceful sleep than previously.

It was only her finely tuned ninja-senses (as Naruto liked to call them) that dragged her groggily from sleep, sometime around midnight. She tensed as she woke up enough to realise that somebody was moving outside. Sakura crept low to the ground and cautiously peeped through the tent flap. Frodo was leaving the campsite, stepping so quietly she was surprised even that she had heard him. She, of course, slid out after him. She didn't even bother grabbing her weapons, he was moving fast and she didn't want to lose him. Just because they were among allies didn't mean he was safe, not with that thing around his neck. Sakura followed silently into the woods, realising with a start that there was a pale figure ahead. Frodo was following Galadriel.

Sakura narrowed her eyes suspiciously, taking cover in the tree branches as they reached a paved clearing. There was a pedestal, with a deep dish rather like a bird-bath, and a waterfall fell into a small pool. Galadriel dipped a pitcher into the pool, and poured it slowly into the dish. Sakura watched with a frown as Frodo looked into "The Mirror", and saw what would happen if he failed. It must have been terrible, because the next second he'd scrambled away from the pedestal and was holding the ring out to the elf, all but begging her to take it from him. Sakura almost jumped down then and there, but even as she readied herself on the branch, she felt the tug of the ring. She looked down, alarmed, at the tiny piece of gold on his palm. It would be so easy, to just jump down and snatch it up…Sakura dug her fingers into the wood of the tree, gluing herself there with chakra.

**No.**

The damn thing was pulling. She could feel it.

**Put it away Frodo.**

Sakura grit her teeth. She should never have touched the damn thing in the first place. It _wanted_ to be taken.

Then Galadriel began to speak, her voice booming in the still clearing, as she spoke of the reign of a dark queen, beautiful and terrible. She seemed to glow with a dark light, and Sakura tensed herself. If nothing else she would body-tackle the elf, if she tried to take the ring, but she didn't want to be down there right now.

**Put. It. Away.**

Sakura watched as Galadriel's eyes widened, and she seemed to realise what she was saying. She dropped her arms and the energy seemed to drain out of the elf. Galadriel backed away from the frozen Frodo, and closed her eyes as if exhausted.

"I pass the test," she sighed, seemingly relieved, "I shall go into the east, and remain Galadriel."

Frodo at last seemed to snap out of it, and shakily clenched his hand around the Ring. Sakura released her breath slowly, feeling the pull abate. She shuddered to think how strongly it was pulling on Galadriel, and felt a measure of respect for the elf.

"Return to your bed Frodo," Galadriel's voice floated up softly from below, "Get some rest."

The hobbit fled the clearing.

But for once, Sakura did not follow. Her eyes stayed on Galadriel, who raised a dainty hand to her head as if pained, and sat down on the raised edge of the pool. She dropped softly into the clearing.

"You felt it too," the she-elf whispered without looking up.

"Yes." Sakura's answer was just as quiet.

There was a long period of silence, before the elf raised her head.

"Would you like to look into the mirror?" She asked, somewhat randomly.

Sakura's brows shot up, "Interested to know what I'd see?" she shot back, and the elf smiled a little, seeing that their little game was far from over. Galadriel inclined her head toward the dish, challenge in her eyes. They both knew Sakura wasn't about to back down to the elf now.

So she stepped up to the pedestal.

Sakura looked down at the still water, for a moment seeing nothing but her own reflection. Her brows creased slightly as a shadow seemed to grow from the centre, expanding and shifting into shapes, sounds and pictures. She leaned closer, trying to see more clearly as the vision slowly swam into focus.

Her breath caught.

She was watching her own funeral.


	21. Chapter 20: Mission Kick Ass

_**Sakura looked down at the still water, for a moment seeing nothing but her own reflection. Her brows creased slightly as a shadow seemed to grow from the centre, expanding and shifting into shapes, sounds and pictures. She leaned closer, trying to see more clearly as the vision slowly swam into focus.**_

_**Her breath caught.**_

_**She was watching her own funeral.**_

Sakura stared into the Mirror, barely breathing.

_Naruto, dressed in black, stepped up to the pyre. For a long moment she stared at the photo of his pink-haired teammate. It was the photo taken a year and a half ago, when she made chuunin, she looked so happy. Tears ran unchecked down his face, as he reached out, a white flower in his hand…_

She realised with a jerk that the photo was recent, and everybody was the same age. This wasn't "What will be" but rather "What _is_" – they only _thought_ she was dead. And while it was good to know that her real funeral wasn't going to be happening anytime in the near future (at least, so she hoped) it wasn't a particular comfort to know that her friends certainly thought so. She watched as Ino sobbed heavily onto Shikamaru's shoulder, who barely succeeded in holding her up. Naruto was still standing at the pyre, hand outstretched and unmoving.

**I'm not dead Dammit! I'm here!**

Had they given up on her so easily? Sakura's hands clenched around the rim of the basin.

At this point, the gennin-Sasuke-stalking Sakura would have sat down and cried, given up and possibly found some other broody avenger to chase after instead. The chuunin-more-mature-but-still-kinda-teary Sakura might have lashed out at something, cried a bit, tried a bit harder before giving up and made a new life for herself as a medic. The tried-to-kill-Sasuke-got-sent-to-Middle-Earth-And-Kicked-Ass Sakura expressed her feelings in one eloquent sentence.

**Like Fuck.**

She glared at the vision of Naruto, daring him to put down that flower and walk away into a life without her. That wasn't the Naruto she knew, and like hell was she going to believe some water in a pool could tell her she was forgotten.

_Naruto watched a tear fall from his nose and land with a splash on the flat black stone. He had yet to drop the flower. People were starting to whisper. He glared through his tears at the shiny black surface, seeing his own reflection looking accusingly back at him. It wasn't supposed to end like this. _

'_I'm not dead Dammit!'_

_He caught his breath, staring at the stone. Was he…hearing things? _

"_Sakura-chan…?" He whispered. He could have sworn that just for a second, he saw Sakura's reflection looking up at him, daring him to give up on her. Just for a second._

_His hand clenched around the flower. Naruto didn't care if his mind was playing tricks on him, his heart was clearly telling him something and like fuck if he wasn't gonna listen._

_He slammed the flower down with an audible smack._

_Naruto turn slowly to the assembled ninja, looking up with red eyes that dared them to disagree._

"_She isn't dead."_

"_Naruto…" Ino tried to intervene, voice gentle and broken._

"_She. Isn't. Dead." Naruto's voice held such conviction that nobody could find it in their hearts to interrupt. "She's just lost. And I am going to find her. One way or another."_

Sakura watched in slight wonder as Naruto stalked away, determination flashing in his eyes, and the vision swam and faded. She stepped back from the Mirror to find Galadriel staring at her with something akin to awe. Sakura huffed irritably.

"If you wanted to know, you could just _ask_." She levelled a snarky scowl at the elf, who had the grace to look mildy apologetic.

"I apologise, it is something of a habit."

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Are…all your people like that?" Galadriel asked a little hesitantly.

Green eyes fixed on her with an unreadable look.

"Like Naruto? No." She stated bluntly, but broke into a bittersweet smile soon after "But we try to be."

Sakura sunk into her own thoughts, looking absently at the pedestal and the Mirror. The way that vision-Naruto had almost mirrored her own thoughts was…vaguely disturbing, but by no means was she ready to give up on going home. Hell, that experience only made her more determined to do so. She snapped her head to the Lady, and the elf was curious to see the suddenly calculating look she received.

"Gandalf wasn't the only Wizard in Middle Earth," she started, voice shrewd, and she glanced at the Mirror, "nor was his the only magic I dare say."

Galadriel's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Surely you are not about to give up on your quest. Did you not vow to protect Frodo?"

"Of course not," Sakura snorted, "My 'quest' just happens to include possible trans-dimensional travel at the end of it. Now, my Lady, what do you know about Magic?"

'Straight to the point.' The elf mused, before she turned and walked away from the pink-haired child and to the entrance of the clearing.

"An eye for eye, so they say child," she smiled with just a hint of a smirk on her lips, "Walk with me."

And so it went. Every step fired off another question, or another answer.

Sakura learned of the Wizard Order, of which the head was the recently traitorous Sarumon the White.

Galadriel was intrigued to learn of the strange abilities of the warrior's in Sakura's homeland, and the many ways in which their power was used. She had never heard of a more amazing, or harsher, place in her significant existence.

Sakura found out that Wizard magic and Elf magic operated in very different ways. It was unlikely that the elves could help her, but finding a wizard who would, and who was powerful enough, would be difficult indeed.

So she needed a wizard. Gandalf was gone, and by the sounds of it the only other who was strong enough was an evil backstabbing bastard. Wonderful. This sentiment, when relayed to Galadriel, brought about first a laugh and then a mysterious smile from the elf-woman.

"Men desire power, and evil men more so. A man whose eye is clouded is easily led blind."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, dismally noted on the side that she'd been doing that an aweful lot lately, and then raised the other as well. Trust an elf to come up with a cryptic statement like that. But even so the elf had a point. The Wizard clearly sought power. She was powerful. He had already been bought by such promises once, which told her he was greedy and that could be used. If it came down to it, Sakura wasn't above outright trickery. She smirked at Galadriel, for once not giving a damn that the woman could see right into her thoughts. Let her see. Sakura had a plan, and a target, and that made it a mission.

**Mission Get-Home-And-Kill-The-Bad-Guy-While-You-Do-So.**

The elf looked amused, and she shrugged. She'd think of a better name later. At least was a start, and even if it wasn't the best plan it was a chance. A chance was all she'd need.

Of course, first there was the whole protecting Frodo, throwing the evil jewellery into a volcano and save the world thing to deal with first. More Naruto's field of expertise really but she'd have to make do. She shook the rather random thoughts out of her head. There was time for moping and grieving later, but now she was in Mission Mode, someone needed her and she had a promise to keep.

She parted ways with Galadriel some time later, with a renewed sense of purpose and determination shining in her eyes.

**Look out Middle-Earth, Haruno Sakura is ready to Kick some serious Ass.**


	22. Chapter 21: Tomorrow We See Kings

The pretty green clip to hold it was a nice touch Sakura thought - very Konoha - as she nuzzled her cheek against the soft green cloth of the Elvin cloak she'd been given.

"So soft," she mumbled, and flushed a little as her companions collectively stifled their chuckles, with varying degrees of success. She stuck her tongue out at Pippin, who guffawed loudly, and finally let the cloak drop. The hem brushed her calves, and the leaf-pin nestled comfortably in the hollow of her throat. She rather liked it, she decided, glancing over the Fellowship, who reminded her of some kind of sports team now that they were all decked out in matching cloaks.

She slung her pack carelessly over one shoulder, and trotted over to stand with Aragorn and Legolas. They'd lingered in Lorien as long as they dared, but it was time to continue their journey. Her eyes flickered a little regretfully over the silver trees. It was so peaceful here, and it was only too easy to push the dark things to the back of your mind. Now, once again, they'd have to face those dark things head on once again. Her heart ached a little for the fallen Wizard, and she sighed softly, closing her eyes for a moment.

**Don't even try it.**

She opened them again to see the elf-Lady in front of her, wearing an amused smile. Galadriel had yet to give up on slipping into her mind, and so far Sakura had tossed her out in seconds each and every time. At least the elf no longer received a string of profanities each time, which Galadriel considered progress, even if she did not know the meanings of the words in the first place. The elf extended both hands toward Sakura, and after a moment of uncertainty, Sakura hesitantly extended her own hands. Galadriel smiled, pleased, and the pinkette found herself not only returning it but allowing the elf to pull her forward gently.

"My child," she murmured, "I wish you luck, in every aspect of your quest."

"Thank you," Sakura returned quietly, but the watching group could not help but feel there was something more in the exchange. After all, even Frodo didn't know of their little moment two nights ago.

"My stay has been most educational," Sakura added with a mysterious smile worthy of the Lady of Lorien herself. Galadriel reciprocated with one of her own, and dipped her head in a semi-bow, still lightly grasping Sakura's hands. The girl copied it, and the two stepped back simultaneously, their exchange over, and an understanding between them.

Galadriel turned to the rest of the Fellowship, imparting murmured words or short exchanges with each. Sakura watched disinterestedly until a hand on her shoulder attracted her attention to Lord Celeborn.

"You seem to have made quite the impression on my wife," he observed mildly.

Sakura stepped back and dipped a bow to the elf-lord, before she sent him a cheeky look up through her lashes. "Only your wife?"

He chucked lowly, and she straightened.

"Her, I think the most, but perhaps next time you may see fit to make a somewhat _lesser_ impression on my men?"

Haldir and his archers had avoided her completely and been utterly, unfailingly polite on the rare occasions when they'd had no choice but to speak with her.

"I suppose she has made an impression on me too," was Sakura's vague reply, but she could see a gleam in the elf's eye that told her he was far from offended, or angry at her blatent avoidance of the latter part of his statement. They were both quite aware that poor Haldir would certainly _never_ receive a lesser impression of the volatile girl. Their banter was interrupted by the arrival of said elves with the presents Galadriel had picked out for each member of the fellowship.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Presents?" she asked Celeborn, who merely offered a more dignified version of a long-suffering sigh in response.

The gifts were small, but each held some special meaning or significance to the one that received it. Sam especially was delighted to be gifted with a seed and a box of earth, visions of beautiful silver trees bedecking the Shire springing to mind. To Frodo went the most valuable present – a beautiful glass flute, in which a soft light glimmered slightly.

"The light of our most beloved star; may it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out."

But it was Gimli's who surprised them all, for at first she had no gift for him.

"I do not know," Galadriel spoke softly, "What to give a dwarf."

His answer stunned everyone who heard it.

"We dwarves value beautiful things, My Lady. If you will, give me a lock of your hair, that I may remember yours."

The Lady overcame her surprise in record time, and even as others were just rising from their shock stupor, she withdrew a silver dagger from the folds of her dress and sliced through her hair in one swift motion. She pressed the twist of gold into the dwarves hands with a smile, and the dwarf bowed low to kiss the back of her hand.

"Fare you well, my Lady."

Sakura almost wanted to laugh as she felt the elf-lord tense behind her throughout the exchange, and watched the rather cheesy display. She snuck a glance at Celeborn from the corner of her eye, and quickly snapped her gaze away before she burst into giggles. His Lordship was valiantly failing to hide the icy stare toward the dwarf. She shifted her weight and allowed her hand to nudge his lightly.

"People will think you're jealous of a dwarf if you don't stop glaring my Lord," she whispered with barely a hint of teasing in her voice. She felt him stiffen, but he soon relaxed and his low murmur went unheard by anyone but Sakura.

"How absurd a notion," Celeborn replied easily, and the moment passed. Sakura smiled quietly to herself, but straightened in surprise as Galadriel turned to her. She supposed she shouldn't have been, really.

Sakura found the same silver dagger presented to her, and she took it in admiration. It was a beautiful thing, with ornate designs twisting about the shaft and handle, and a blade-guard etched with similar patterns in white leather. She looked at the elf questioningly.

"What else to give a warrior, but a weapon?" Galadriel smiled.

The Kunoichi accepted this easily, and fastened the blade guard to the belt of her leather skirt - which she'd at last managed to track down and reclaim from the maid along with her elbow guards and red shirt. She really was rather attached to them, and somehow the thought of leaving them behind didn't sit well with her.

And then they were off. Gifts given, goodbyes said, and moments had, the fellowship were herded down to a peer, piled into three slim elf-made boats and set off down the river.

"Think they're trying to get rid of us?" She smirked as she caught Haldir's eye and he disappeared from sight. Seated behind her, Legolas laughed, steering the boat easily with a leaf-shaped paddle. Gimli sat in front of her and merely made a noncommittal sort of grunt, busily stowing his 'gift' securely in a makeshift pouch he'd made from a square of cloth cut from his old travelling cloak and one of the leather thongs he'd used to tie his beard. He hung it around his neck.

Aragorn drew his boat up beside theirs, and Boromir copied the motion on the other side so that the three boats were parallel. The ranger tossed a rope to them, so as to secure the boats together and avoid being accidently separated, and soon Sakura had struck up a conversation with Frodo. Enquiring about his home had been only natural after he'd questioned her about hers, and she quite suddenly found herself spending the next hour listening to the almost frighteningly passionate monologue of Sam – detailing each and every part of the Shire, which of course in Sam's opinion was every part. The Hobbit flushed awkwardly when she unexpectedly levelled her most disarming smile at him, and asked if she might one day see his gardens. Sam mumbled a surprised and embarrassed affirmation before finally sinking into a happy silence, content in the thought that perhaps Sakura wasn't so bad after all, if she could appreciate a good garden.

Sakura smirked slightly, hurriedly covered it with a smile, and turned to Frodo just in time to catch his knowing look. She had the grace to look mildly ashamed (but only a little) and the hobbit rolled his eyes playfully. Comrades in the avoidance of Sam's monologues then. She winked at him, and made a mental note not to ask about the Shire, gardening or potatoes around Samwise Gamgee.

The journey down the river passed in much the same manner – in simple if hushed conversation, and pleasant weather – and slowly the day passed. Sakura wanted to laugh at herself, she'd almost expected to be jumped by something the second they left the shelter of the Wood and yet here they were, enjoying a boat trip in the sun. They had long since stopped bothering to actively steer the boats, letting them drift and using the paddles only to fend off the occasional rock or bit of driftwood. She leaned against the edge and trailed her fingers in the water, relaxing almost against her better judgement, taking advantage of the moment. They wouldn't have a lot of them.

The warm sun on her skin and the cool water on her fingertips was oddly soothing, and Sakura wondered how long it had been since she'd enjoyed something as simple as this. The life of a ninja hardly allowed for the simple pleasures and she realised that she was frowning at her reflection a little sadly.

"You are thinking of your home again?" Legolas' voice broke through her thoughts gently, and she looked up suddenly to meet his eyes in surprise. He smiled at her.

"You show your emotions so clearly on your face," he explained.

"I know," she sighed, resting her cheek on her arms to look up at him lazily, "I'm working on it." She glanced away at her fingers touching the water. "I was." She admitted but her voice took on a more determined note as she turned her eyes back to the elf. "But I will get back, eventually."

"You have someone waiting for you there?" The elf asked, looking away a little uncomfortably at his own audacity. He didn't usually ask such personal questions.

Sakura however, merely smiled a bittersweet smile. "Yes and No."

He looked at her again, confused, and she laughed at his expression.

"Naruto is waiting. My…my closest friend…" she trailed off as if realising for the first time, that _yes_ he was. She smiled fondly.

"But you were not referring to friends, no?" There was an odd look in her eye, but she sighed and quite suddenly flopped into her previous position against the edge, rocking the boat slightly.

"In which case, the answer is no." She finished blandly.

"If I offended you…" the elf began unsurely, but he was interrupted quickly.

"No, not really." Sakura smiled wanly, "Don't mind me."

"Did a lad turn you down lass? Is he blind or stupid? Both perhaps?" Gimli interrupted in a voice so serious that oddly, she couldn't help but giggle.

"Something like that."

If someone had ever told her that she'd be sat between an elf and dwarf, discussing her love life like three (admittedly strange) teenage girls, she would have laughed out loud. As it was, she found herself feeling strangely better.

**Fuck I'm weird.**

She shook her head with a grin.

Oddly she continued to feel better, until dusk snuck up on them, and suddenly the forest on either side looked less scenic and more daunting. She hoped Moria hadn't made her subconsciously afraid of the dark; she would suck as a ninja if that happened. She comforted herself with the thought that all ninja were wary in the dark, especially in unfamiliar territory. Well, most. The ones that weren't deliberately sneaking in to murder a daimyo in his sleep or something. Those ones liked the dark.

**Why thank you, brain. That was such a lovely and comforting thought…**

She shook the thoughts out of her head, sighed, and decided to focus more on where they were, instead of her own general oddness and the somewhat worrying tendency to talk to herself.

The fellowship had fallen silent, apparently of a similar mind (though probably without the talking-to-yourself part) and the elf-boats made barely a sound as they ghosted the riverbank. Aragorn pulled them over on a sheltered shoal beach to spend the night.

"If we continue at this pace we will reach the falls in another day, two at most." He told them quietly, as they set up camp. By now the group were used to Sakura's odd habits before settling down, as she paced around making odd symbols with her hands. Once her genjutsu traps were laid, Sakura hunkered down next to Aragorn and leaned against his shoulder to look at the map he held. He motioned to a spot on the blue line that marked the river.

"We are here, by my reckoning," he whispered to her, before sliding the digit down the paper. "We will leave the boats when we reach this point." He tapped the map twice, and passed it to her, so she could have a better look.

Sakura leaned in, trying to commit the lines and pictures to memory. She struggled for a long moment before she finally gave up and asked "What does that mean? That symbol there?"

Aragorn smiled, anticipatory.

"We will see that sometime on our journey tomorrow," he looked at her, eyes glinting, "Tomorrow, we shall see the Kings."


	23. Chapter 22: Today We See Kings

The day dawned with that mix of glorious sunshine and biting cold that only the morning can manage to combine. Sakura stretched her hands as high above her head as she could, and sighed happily when she felt her back click - sleeping on rocky shoal beaches was not a particularly comfortable way to spend the night.

Of course, she hadn't been particularly keen on sleeping anyway. She'd stayed up a long portion of the night keeping an intent watch, unable to sleep until Aragorn literally forced her to lie down and pinned her down with a blanket. She rubbed her shoulder thoughtfully. She would get him back for that. The unease she'd felt last night lingered in the very back of her mind, but there seemed little cause for alarm this morning, and nobody was in any mind to hurry the next stage of their journey. Sam was already getting a fire started, while Boromir skipped pebbles across the river and Aragorn sharpened his sword with steady strokes of a stone. Gimli and the other Hobbits were still snoring soundly, but Legolas was up and quietly nibbling a piece of lembas bread. She padded over to Sam and crouched down by the busy hobbit.

"Morning Miss Sakura," he greeted her, and Sakura fought to keep the surprise off her face – since when had she been _Miss_ Sakura? She smiled a little, apparently since she'd expressed an interest in gardens. She thought perhaps the life-saving had a little to do with it too, but either way she was happy enough to finally be on the same page with him. She smiled at him easily.

"Good morning Sam. What do we have for breakfast?"

He pulled a face, "some dried fruits and nuts, lembas bread," Sam shrugged, "The same old rations really. What I wouldn't give for some nice crispy bacon."

A flash of silver caught her eye and she turned her head slightly to the river.

"How about fish?"

She didn't wait for a reply, but flashed him a grin as she walked over to Legolas.

"Come on elfie, you're going to help me catch some fish for breakfast."

The elf in question raised an eyebrow. "Elfie?"

She smirked at him, "Do you want some real food or not?"

For a moment, he looked like he wanted to defend the elfish bread half-eaten in his hand, but apparently truth won out, and he sighed.

"Very well my lady, I am at your service." He jumped up and performed an extravagant and over-the-top bow for effect, and looked up at her cheekily from under his hair. She rolled her eyes good naturedly.

She moved away to tug off her cloak and untie her tunic, before pulling off her boots. As she struggled with the clasp of the second boot she noticed that the men in the vicinity were suddenly concentrating very hard on anything that wasn't her. She raised an eyebrow at the slightly pink cheeks, and almost groaned when she realised what the problem was.

"For goodness' sakes I am still completely covered!" she snapped, and the assembled males felt a little foolish to see that she was indeed still wearing the ankle-length green leggings and her black undershirt. Of course Sakura would never do something so crass as to remove her clothing in front of a group of men. They offered various ashamed faces, and she deflated with a huff.

"I just don't want to get _all_ of my clothes wet," she said in a tone that all but screamed 'how-dumb-are-you-lot?' She went on with an annoyed roll of her eyes, "Honestly, what would you do if I got stabbed through the chest by an orc huh? You'd all be bloody useless." She finished in a mutter, motioned for Legolas to grab his bow, and walked away from him to step onto the water surface. She turned once she'd walked a few steps to find Legolas stood at the edge of the water and everybody (that was awake) still staring at her. Except of course, for Aragorn, who'd barely looked up from what he was doing in the first place.

"This is not the first time I have done this. Stop staring." She commanded testily. Finally having had enough of the shame-faced men, she shortly instructed Legolas to "just shoot the damn fish when they jump". His face displayed utter confusion, but she released her chakra before he had time to ask and dropped into the water with barely a splash.

The water was freezing. Sakura waited barely a second before she dived downwards, swimming swiftly. After doing this with Naruto so often, it was easy to drive a large silver fish toward the surface. Seconds later it fell into the water again, an arrow piercing it neatly. She grabbed the shaft of the arrow, pleased, and dived again.

Legolas watched the river carefully. While at first he'd been unsure as to what she expected of him, the minute that first fish had leapt from the water he caught on to this odd method of fishing. His arrows had fired sure, but he could only hope she was not expecting him to dive in to retrieve the fish afterward. A large splash had him whipping his bow upward, but the flash of pink stilled his hand. Sakura crouched triumphantly on top of the water, dripping wet and covered in goose bumps, but proudly clutching three arrow-shafts in each hand. There was a large fish impaled on each one. Legolas straightened and grinned. Six fish would be plenty.

"Six fish!" Sam exclaimed joyfully, looking like he could kiss the girl. Sakura laughed and handed them over.

"I'll leave these to your culinary expertise, Sam," she told him with a grin and settled by the fire to dry herself out a bit. It was to this scene that three Hobbits and one dwarf awoke to. The smell of frying fish permeated the air with a mouth watering aroma, and the warmth of the fire along with the promise of food was enough to draw them from their beds without much fuss.

It was quite the high honour, that Sakura was given her portion of the fish even before Frodo. But it was a unanimous vote that the fisher's should get first cut, and so Legolas received his after Sakura, and Frodo third. He was not particularly put out, because he always felt uncomfortable to be put first anyway, and fish was fish. Good fish. Sakura hummed appreciatively as the flavour hit her tongue, Sam had outdone himself – sentiments which were echoed among the group – and it was generally agreed that the morning was off to a Good Start.

Breakfast was over too quickly for anybodies tastes, but soon they were packed into the boats and off down the river again. It seemed hardly any time at all before thay notice a shadow on the water. Momentarily alarmed, Sakura looked up…and kept looking.

Sakura had to admit, this was pretty hot damn impressive.

It even gave the Hokage Mountain a run for its money. So to speak.

Not that she _could_ speak with her jaw hanging open in a very accurate, if unbecoming, impersonation of a fish.

**Holy Shit.**

The Kings flanked the river on either side. They rose into the clouds and didn't seem to stop, their stone bodies intricately carved, and worn with a thousand years of wind and rain. They each stretched out a hand before them, palm raised in a stance that screamed "Back off if you know what's good for you." To be honest it rather reminded her of the Valley of the End. But the difference was, these statues stood together, warning away a common enemy. Those that stood in the Valley of the End faced each other.

She wondered if that said something about Middle Earth, and about her home…

It seemed to take forever to pass underneath the enormous statues. And Sakura found her neck starting to cramp up as she craned back, staring upwards.

"The Kings of Old," she heard Aragorn whisper, his voice awed.

"Your ancestors," Sakura said softly, without looking at him, but she smiled when he let out a quiet laugh.

"Yes." She didn't have to look; she could hear the admiration in his voice clearly.

Vaguely she wondered what Aragorn himself would look like as a statue. Or Naruto. This sort of thing was pretty much the ultimate sign of respect and recognition after all. Her eyes softened, an expression not unnoticed.

"What are you thinking?" Aragorn asked curiously, pulling his boat closer to hers.

"About statues," she returned with a cheeky grin. He rolled his eyes with an answering grin.

"You are? I was thinking about something entirely different."

She stuck her tongue out at him and leaned against the edge of the boat.

"Alright, I was thinking that doing something like this," she gestured upwards, "Is just about the biggest thing you can do to show how much you respect someone. We have a similar sort of monument, except that ours commemorates a great battle between two of the strongest warriors of our history." There was a sort of regretful look in her eye, Aragorn noticed, when she stated the latter. But it was soon gone when she continued. "I suppose I was wondering…"

"If you would get a statue?"

"If you would, actually." Sakura smiled at his astounded look. Then she laughed as another thought hit her. "Maybe we all will, if we succeed."

"I think I rather like that idea," Pippin piped up with a grin.

"Yeah, a Merry that's 100 feet tall…" Merry's voice trailed off in happy imagining.

"Ten statues will take a lot of stone," Boromir chuckled, "I suppose we shall have to commandeer an entire mountain."

"A perfectly acceptable waste of mountain," Gimli added, and the boats at last passed under the shadow of the statues.

Sakura settled back into her place against the edge of the boat, letting the relaxed conversation wash over her. These moments were becoming more and more precious. The unease she'd felt last night hovered in the back of her mind, and she was sure that Gollum creature was still around somewhere. Her night's vigil was taking its toll on her, but she only half-regretted not getting as much sleep as she could have last night. Even after Aragorn had pinned her down (**He actually _sat on her_! The git**) and refused to move until she agreed to sleep, Sakura had found it difficult to ignore the rustling of the trees and the splashes of the river. For now though, the sun was shining, she was among good company, and the fear seemed far away. She let her eyelids droop and shifted to get more comfortable against the side of the gently swaying boat. It was almost odd how comfortably her cheek pressed into the crook of her arm, and how softly the elf-cloak fell about her shoulders, shielding her from the cool breeze which played with her bangs and keeping her so comfortably _warm_.

**This is…nice…**

Sakura opened her eyes to feel fingers gently tugging her hair. She tensed at the unfamiliar sensation and sat up abruptly, flinching as it pulled before Legolas let it slip through his fingers. She flushed as she looked into his utterly blank face, but his eyes glinted with amusement. Oh gods, had she fallen asleep on him? But she was against the side! Sakura glanced over at the spot she'd thought she'd settled down – about a foot away. Her face went red. She made a quick retreat, shuffling backwards as discreetly as she could and wedging herself against the side of the boat. It seemed that she'd slipped sideways when she'd fallen asleep, and wound up leaning against the elf, who for some reason decided to start fiddling with her hair. A discrete glance at the reflection of the sun in the water told her she hadn't been asleep long. A small mercy.

The apology that was about to stumble out of her mouth – no doubt in a rushed and jumbled mess – was stopped short when the elf beat her to it.

"I apologise for startling you," he said softly, and moved his eyes to her hair, "It is just so unusual."

Sakura was pretty sure that her face was rivalling her hair at the moment.

"Er…it's ok…just unexpected…and…sorry for falling asleep on you…uh…"

She shut her mouth, feeling more foolish by the second. The others were very kindly trying to pretend that they weren't amused - the key word: trying. She glanced at the poorly hidden smirks sulkily and hid her face against the side of the boat, tossing her cloak over her head.

"Shut up…" she mumbled. First she'd fallen asleep on Aragorn, and now Legolas? And speak of the devil…

"I'm hurt that you've replaced me Sakura," Aragorn's voice drifted over in a teasing tone. She lifted her head to glare at him, cheeks rosy.

**Note to self – sleep ALONE and well away from potentially mortifying experiences with males.**

Gimli let out a loud laugh and clapped the poor girl on the back.

"Ah lass, don't mind the oddities of an elf. Anyone can see they have a fixation with hair."

"And what, Dwarf, is that supposed the mean?" Legolas rejoined with irritation.

"I'll explain in as many short words as I can," Gimli replied in mocking tone which elicited a twitch in the elf's fingers, like he wanted to reach for his bow. But the dwarf's reply was directed more to Sakura than to Legolas, "Why, anyone with eyes can see that they must spend an unnatural time tending to their locks – any real man should not shine when the sun hits their head."

"An interesting standpoint, considering what is in that pouch you treasure."

Legolas apparently didn't take kindly to having his masculinity brought into question. And with that the elf and the dwarf were back to their old ways, as if they hadn't been any closer to becoming friends at all. Sakura wondered if Gimli had started the argument for her benefit or for his own – the dwarf never seemed to enjoy himself more than when he was ruffling the elf's feathers. She snickered to herself; maybe they were just doomed to have that kind of friendship. The constantly competitive and argumentative kind. Sakura giggled as Legolas launched into a series of "So is that big beard some sort of compensation?" themed implications, which were hotly refuted and opposed with the dwarves jabs at Legolas' manhood. But something other than the exchange of blunt insults and biting sarcasm suddenly caught her senses.

Their argument was abruptly halted by a hand pressed to their mouths. Sakura was half-twisted around, arms extended to silence Legolas and Gimli, but her eyes were searching the forest over her shoulder. She felt the elf's fingertips touch hers, and she let her hands drop obligingly.

"There is something there." She whispered suspiciously, frustrated that she couldn't see anything. She stood carefully in the boat, trying not to rock it, and stepped out to stand on the water instead. The boats drifted away slowly, their occupants silent and tense, while she stood motionless on the surface, straining her eyes and ears for any sound. After a long moment, she walked downstream to where the boats had drifted and stepped in again, sitting down with a huff.

"I'm willing to bet that Gollum creature is following us again," she hissed quietly, "But whether it's him or someone else, I can't hear them anymore. Our little chaser must know they've been spotted."

The rest of the journey was in an uncomfortable silence. After three agonisingly slow hours, the boats were moored on a pebble beach, several metres upstream from an impressive waterfall. Sakura wasted no time throwing up every genjutsu she could think of. She considered trip wires, but she didn't want any of the group triggering them accidently. At least the genjutsu traps were far enough away from their camp to be of little worry. Satisfied, she made short work of the trip back, foregoing the path in favour of the trees as a much quicker (and safer) route.

As she drew closer, Sakura could hear Aragorn and Legolas talking, apparently the elf wanted to cross the river now. But Aragorn would have none of it, bringing up that the eastern shore would be crawling with Orcs by nightfall. She jumped down from the trees noiselessly, and walked into camp just in time to hear Legolas' mutter "It's not the Eastern shore that bothers me."

Sakura looked back at the forest, and couldn't agree more.


	24. Chapter 23: Pity Is Not The Same As Nice

Sakura stiffened as she felt the tell-tale ripple of chakra that told her someone had hit her genjutsu. With a muttered "I'll be back" to Aragorn, she took to the branches and bounded upstream with the grace and silence of a cat. She slowed down as she approached the area, the gentle tug of chakra pulsing against her senses. Sakura drew a kunai. There was a low, unhappy moaning below.

"Preciousss, why doesss it go? Again. Again. Why doess it hurts uss?"

The creature was around the size of a hobbit, but gangly and so thin that it seemed like nothing more than grey skin stretched over a frame. Sakura could pick out every rib and vertebrae, as it lay in the gnarled roots of a tree, curled in on itself in the classic foetal position. Gollum. His hands cradled his over-large head, tugging at the wispy hairs that were already so few as to make him almost bald. She frowned, gauging the depth of the genjutsu trap he'd fallen into. Her traps were mostly just basic genjutsu, and this one contained little more than endless corridors and doors that led nowhere. It probably wasn't the first of her traps that he'd hit either, judging by his mutterings. She dropped lightly, kunai gripped securely in her palm. He didn't have the resources to break out of it himself, so he'd be stuck here until her chakra dissipated enough for it to crumble, no doubt leaving him severely disorientated and with a hell of a headache. Sakura pressed the kunai under the creature's chin, but the blade went unnoticed as he was still lost in the illusion. One quick hand motion and it would be over.

Sakura hesitated. Gollum was crying pitifully and whimpering, his feet kicked feebly as if chasing something that he couldn't catch, or running from something. Tears mixed with snot and saliva on his face, and ran down his chin. She pulled a face. Disgusting. The frail thing looked barely able to stand, let alone defend itself, even if it weren't stuck in a genjutsu. In this state, he was utterly helpless and at her mercy. She let out a long suffering sigh.

**Naruto, you will be the death of me.**

She stowed the knife. Somehow, after all her medical training and exposure to Naruto's blatant heroism, she couldn't bring herself to end the miserable existence of such a helpless creature. She realised that Gandalf's words were true. Once you saw him, you couldn't help but pity him.

"_My heart tells me he will have a part to play, before the end."_

**I hope you're right Gandalf.**

She rose into a standing position, hands on hips. What to do with him, then? She ran her hand through her hair in aggravation. Killing the little shit would be so much easier, but no, that went against the Naruto-ism that the orange Hokage-wannabe somehow managed to instil in every person he met. She huffed. A glance at the darkening sky told her that dusk was upon them, and soon it would start getting dark for real. She settled for setting a few more traps in a sort of ring pattern around the moaning creature, confident that even when her chakra dissipated from one, there would be a few more waiting no matter which direction he went. She scribbled a timed-release seal on a couple of trees, to ensure that they wouldn't run out too quickly – Gollum would be kept occupied for a fair while yet. And just because she had a naturally vindictive streak, she styled the illusions along the lines of a ring floating just out of reach, and endless tunnels filled with mocking laughter. Pity wasn't the same as being nice after all.

She bounded away through the trees.

Sakura arrived at the campsite to be greeted with a sight she'd much rather not have seen. Or more accurately, to a _lack _of the sight she wanted to see.

"Where is Frodo?"

Aragorn looked up to answer, but then her hard gaze landed on him and he didn't have chance to speak.

"Where is Boromir?"

The look of dawning alarm was all she needed to disappear into the forest. A muffled curse and footsteps behind her told Sakura that the ranger was hot on her heels. She had to find Boromir.

Frodo had gone for a walk to clear his head. He knew that walking by himself was a bit silly, but he wasn't that far from the camp and it wasn't dark yet. He'd go back soon anyway. He just needed a little time alone.

"None of us should be walking alone, least of all you."

He spun around, startled. The man of Gondor stood behind him, arms full of firewood. His boots crunched on the dry leaves underfoot, as he stepped with forced casualness toward the hobbit, stooping to pick up another stick as he went, to keep up the façade of gathering wood. Frodo made no attempt to mask his cautious step backward.

Boromir did not relent.

"You do not have to bear this alone Frodo." Boromir's voice had that persuasive, silky quality to it that he'd used in Rivendell, and to an outsider he would nothing but a friendly teammate, trying to help. But Frodo had a bad feeling, and he didn't like where this was going.

"I know what you would say, and it would seem like wisdom but for the warning in my heart." He watched the man carefully, eyes occasionally flicking to side, lest he needed to flee. He should have stayed with the group. Or taken Sakura with him or _something. _Frodo felt foolish, and paranoid. His hand lifted subconsciously to his throat as if guarding the chain and the ring that hung from it. The motion did not go unnoticed by the man, who seemed to have trouble focussing on his face more than his hand. Boromir took another step forward.

"Warning?" He repeated with an incredulous laugh. But it rang out falsely in the still wood.

"You are not yourself."

This was not the answer the man wanted to hear. Frodo started as he dropped the wood with a clatter. His voice had taken on a strained note, as if it was taking all his willpower not to lunge for the hobbit then and there. Frodo tensed.

"I am only trying…to help you…" There was a gleam in his eye that Frodo didn't like, and the hobbit began backing away in earnest.

"It should be mine! Give it to me!" Boromir's control snapped and he threw himself at Frodo. His hands clawed at the hobbits shirt, even as Frodo kicked viciously and struggled in his grip. The loose earth under them sent them both sprawling to the ground and Frodo scrambled to his feet, away from the advancing man. He knew he couldn't outrun Boromir. His hands began scrabbling at the chain around his neck and he fell backwards onto his behind as Boromir snatched at his ankle. Frodo let out a loud, frightened yell, kicking with all his might.

Then his vision was filled with pink.

Sakura burst from the foliage and full-out body tackled Boromir. His face landed in the dirt with a muffled grunt.

"Get going!" she yelled at him, and the hobbit didn't need telling twice. His feet tossed up the leaves in his mad dash to get away and neither human noticed him vanish abruptly from sight. They were rolling around in the dirt like squabbling dogs. Boromir acted like a man possessed. His teeth were bared in a snarl and his fingers caught around her throat. He'd barely begun to squeeze before he was thrown off like nothing more than a doll. Sakura might be reluctant to injure a teammate but that didn't mean she was going to go let him off easy. Far from it. She tugged two kunai from her weapons pouch and held one between her teeth so as to have a hand free. Boromir lunged for her and she caught the outstretched arm easily, using his momentum to flip him onto his back. He hit the ground painfully. Boromir barely had time to catch his breath before he felt his cloak pulled tight. Sakura had pinned the material to the ground, and the kunai were embedded to the hilt. He struggled and kicked, and Sakura withdrew another. She tossed it between his legs. He froze. Whether he was in control of himself right now or not, he was still a man, and he could recognise a pointy _sharp _object when it was too close to his manly bits for comfort. In the seconds it took for Boromir to process the move, Sakura had straddled him, one chakra enhanced fist closed painfully around his wrists and the other pulled back by her head.

"Snap out of it you idiot!"

The punch snapped his head to the side, through the sheer force of the fist to his jaw. He let out a painful gasp. Then, slowly, his head turned to Sakura, still crouched over his chest and watching him intently. It was as if a cloud had lifted, and the eyes that looked back at her were startlingly clear.

"F-Frodo…" he whispered shakily.

"Yeah you did a real good job there." Sakura told him bluntly, apparently not willing to let him up yet. She was surprised to see the man's eyes begin to tear up.

"What…what have I done…? Frodo…" Boromir closed his eyes painfully, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He tugged a wrist free of Sakura's unresisting hand, and covered his face with his arm. Sakura looked appraisingly at the quietly sobbing man, but concluded that he wasn't about to move further on his own and slowly rose from her crouch. She carefully tugged the kunai free, and stepped away from him. Boromir stayed where he was, ashamed and miserable. Sakura felt the stirrings of pity again, and her anger ebbed.

She sighed. "I'm going to find him. Clean yourself up and go back to camp. You're a mess."

If Boromir was insulted he didn't show it. He barely acknowledged her at all. Sakura spared him one last glance before she once again took to the trees after the wayward hobbit. She could only hope that Aragorn had found him, and that Frodo hadn't done anything stupid.

But as she dropped from a branch and into a circle of surprised-looking Orcs, she supposed she really should have known better.


	25. Chapter 24: Failure

"Hello."

The Orc-like-things (as she eloquently labelled them) looked, if possible, even more confused. Actually, because they all had faces like a buffalo's behind, they only succeeded in looking constipated, but she guessed that meant confusion because they hadn't attacked yet and had a distinct air of "Huh?" about them. She took advantage of the few seconds of surprise – enemies didn't usually drop out of the sky and exchange pleasant greetings after all (Which was, of course, exactly why she did it) – and gave her foes a quick once-over. They were bigger than the Orcs she saw in Moria, and more human-like somehow. They were less stooped and twisted – instead they walked tall with their heads high and back straight – and she noticed that they had bigger hands, though the fingers were still hooked and clawed. Bigger hands for bigger weapons, she thought. They all wore armour of some description, a mismatch of black leather and mail, the occasional plate, and all decorated with a white handprint. All in all, Sakura concluded, these were the upgrade. Bigger. Stronger. Probably smarter – but considering the Orcs she saw in the mines, Sakura didn't think that was a particularly difficult feat. In any case, "bigger, stronger and smarter" meant "harder to kill" and that was very definitely Not Good. Her few seconds ran out.

Sakura spun on her heel to avoid the arrow that came flying her way, caught it with her backward hand and almost carelessly tossed it back at the bowman. He crumpled. They charged. Sakura was soon lost from sight under a mass of heaving bodies, all intent on shoving something sharp into some part of her body. She ducked and weaved, avoiding the strikes. In such a close-knit melee it was difficult for her opponents to get in a decent swing, and she was taking advantage of that. Sakura dropped and spun - simultaneously dodging the blade meant for her neck and kicking the legs out from under several of her enemies. She kicked up with her heel, holding her weight on her hands as she kicked one in the jaw with enough force to shatter the bone. A mistake, because the next second another had grabbed her ankle and thrown her bodily against a tree. She let her body slide down the bark, but rolled out the way as a mace came toward her to deliver the finishing blow. It whistled slightly as it went past her ear. Sakura wasted no time getting her feet under her, and with a chakra enhanced kick she shoved off the ground and launched into the treetops. Her pouch was roughly tugged open and several kunai were pulled free. Sakura's fingers made short work of wrapping exploding tags around the handle of each, and she sent them flying with deadly accuracy; they thudded into the ground in a semi-circle around the base of her tree. She leapt clear and a single hand sign was all it took to ignite them - her enemies flew through the air to land in a pained, cursing heap by the force of the explosion. If they didn't know already, the fellowship would have no doubt that they were under attack. She ground her teeth when she realized that more were coming. The ones she'd already been fighting were getting up – at least the ones who still had the use of their legs, she noticed with a vicious smirk – and some were starting to climb the tree. She weighed up her options carefully, keeping up a barrage of senbon and kunai to keep the Orcs at bay, and occasionally jumping to a new tree when the need arose. Finally coming to a decision, she drew a smoke-bomb from her pack. Sakura held her breath, pulled the cap, and let the little sphere drop. The area was instantly filled with thick acrid smog, and Sakura slipped away while the Orcs on the ground were still choking and rubbing their eyes. She was going to find Frodo.

Branches passed by in a blur as she raced off toward the campsite, occasionally snagging her clothes or cloak. Sakura paid little attention, focusing her eyes on the ground and letting her instincts guide her through the trees. She skidded to a halt, catching herself with one hand on the trunk, when she saw Legolas and Gimli race past beneath her – obviously headed toward the commotion on the upper-side of the hill. That meant that Frodo wasn't at the boats – yet – and she turned her head towards the hill with growing suspicion. Even from here she could see there were a lot of Orc-hybrids up there, and considering that he was the main target…Sakura frowned, examining the path.

**If I was a hobbit, what would I do?**

The answer was obvious, now that she'd stopped to think about it. Avoid the paths. Head towards the boats. That meant he'd be coming this way, probably close to the path so as not to get lost but just far enough from it to have some decent cover, and knowing how sneaky a hobbit could be when they wanted to – almost silent in doing so. The elvish cloak would help too, considering that handy ability of blending into the surroundings. Sakura anchored her feet to the wood with chakra, a skill she'd perfected in her gennin years to the point that it was almost effortless to do so now, and settled in for an acute watch. The sounds of battle reached her from over the hill, but for now her main priority was Frodo. She didn't wait long.

The thumping of Orc-boots reached her even before they came into sight – they were making no attempt to hide their presence – but under it there was a distinct sound that was off somehow. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated. There! The crackle of leaves underfoot and twigs snapping (albeit very discreetly) was almost entirely overcome by the racket made by the approaching enemies, but when she concentrated on that one sound it seemed to be just a little out-of-time with the thudding footsteps, as if occurring ahead of them. She cleared the path in a single bound, and slid down a trunk on the other side, eyes scanning the area quickly.

Frodo ran fearfully, panicked eyes searching over his shoulder and his body desperately ducking and weaving through the undergrowth. He was sure he felt his heart stop when a figure barrelled into him from behind a tree and tackled him to the ground. He struggled, kicking and beating his small fists against his assailant in frantic motions. He heard a soft 'oof' as a blow hit home. But his victory was short lived as hands closed around his wrists. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable…

"Cut it out you idiot!"

…what? Frodo's eyes flew open to see Sakura crouched over him, scowling as she released one of his hands to rub her cheek, where a bruise was forming. His startled apology was cut off by the same hand, as her head flew up. Before he even caught on to what was happening, the girl had thrown herself over him protectively and tossed the elfin cloak over their bodies. He froze as the thumps and crashes went past. Sakura seemed to be holding her breath, and it was only when he felt the burn in his throat that he realized he was doing the same. After what felt like an age, they finally abated and faded away into the woods. He let out a soft gasp, muffled by Sakura's hand on his mouth, and panted a little as he tried to regain his breath. Sakura was still and silent, and waited another long moment before she threw the cloak off them and sat up, dropping her hand and steadying him with it as he struggled to do the same. That had been close.

"Are you alright?" She whispered, green eyes searching him for any injuries. She healed a scratch on his cheek almost absent-mindedly, and he leant into her touch, emotionally and physically exhausted.

"Boromir…"

"I know." She sighed and glanced regretfully at his chest, where the ring sat under his shirt. He clenched his hand, resisting the urge to cover the spot – he wanted to trust Sakura. She noticed, of course. Frodo sent her the most apologetic look he could muster, and felt oddly guilty to see the understanding in her eyes.

"It was only a matter of time." This time she grimaced a little as she spoke, and did not look at him. "What will you do now?"

He felt the guilt settle quite comfortably in his stomach like a rock, though for the life of him he didn't quite know why.

"I…I have to go."

"Alone?"

He nodded miserably. He didn't want to repeat that situation with Boromir with any more of his friends, and he certainly didn't want to lose any more. His heart ached thinking of the Old Wizard, and his eyes closed briefly as his face took on a pained expression. He stilled and snapped them open again, feeling her hand on his arm tense. Sakura reminded him of a watchdog, as she stared unflinchingly at a bush on the other side of the path, one of her strange knives in hand and already half-rising from her protective crouch. He almost cried with relief as two curly heads popped up.

Merry and Pippin adopted twin expressions of shock and relief, before they were replaced by vague panic and frantic "Come here" gestures. Sakura frowned, uncomprehending for a moment, before her eyes widened in fearful realization. She'd been too absorbed in her exchange with Frodo – and controlling the impulse to stare at/touch the spot on his shirt where a little ring shaped bump sat – that she hadn't realized she'd stopped channelling chakra to her ears. That meant, in turn, that she hadn't heard the other two hobbits fleeing the camp, or the band of brutes returning in pursuit. Now, the sound of boots and clashing swords was far too close for comfort, and the enemy was between Frodo and the boats. The situation, Sakura thought bitterly, was rapidly turning into the kind that could be summed up in a single word.

**Shit.**

Merry and Pippin exchanged perplexed frowns as Sakura and Frodo failed to move. It was obvious by the tense way that Sakura held herself, that she'd heard the approaching Orcs, but she looked indecisive. On the other hand, Frodo looked surprisingly determined, albeit frightened, and the two were surprised to see him catch their eyes and shake his head slowly.

"What are they doing?" Pippin whispered, confused and worried.

"He's leaving," Merry whispered in dawning comprehension, and ignored Pippin's shocked hiss in favour of examining the path for oncoming Orcs. They were close, and there was no way Frodo could get to the boats from here, not at the rate they were moving. He nodded firmly at Frodo, smiled wanly at Sakura in a "What can you do?" kind of fashion, and abruptly jumped into plain view. Pippin caught on fast and joined him just as quickly.

"Oi!"

Sakura gasped softly as she realised what Merry was planning, and it came as no surprise to see them suddenly in the middle of the path, jumping up and down, waving their arms and shouting. She pushed Frodo urgently with her free hand as the two hobbits fled through the trees, the enemy already hot on their heels.

"Go!" Her short, sharp whisper was the last thing Frodo heard as he took off down the bank. Sakura spared a second to watch him go. Then, she quickly made the hand signs for a bunshin, instructed the clone to find Sam, and sped out after Merry, Pippin, and the Orcs that pursued them.

She pooled chakra in her feet as she ran, flaring instinctively as her muscles tensed, and sending her jump further and faster with the abrupt unloading of chakra. It left a small crater in the ground behind her, but Sakura was already speeding through the air with her fists and feet aglow. She flipped her body into a somersault and used the momentum to furl her kick as she ploughed into the back of an Orc, foot extended. She felt his spine crack, but didn't pause to check, instead planting the foot a swinging her second around and up to catch a second in the neck. Her fists struck out simultaneously and two more dropped with a thud. The Orc-hybrids (they certainly weren't Orcs but she didn't know what they called themselves) split into two groups – one of which continued chasing the hobbits – and the second group turned and charged toward her. Sakura slammed her heel into the ground and earth erupted into the air. The dust and debris was enough to blind her opponents, however briefly, and momentarily hidden she uprooted a tree with practiced ease and swung it like a bat. She felt the reassuring jar of the trunk against her arms, as several bodies slammed into it and were swept away. She let her grip slip and the tree crashed into the ground, killing the creatures pinned under it, and rolling over them for good measure. It smacked to a stop against two other trees. She flipped backwards out of the way of the advancing blades and landed nimbly atop the trunk she'd just thrown, and suddenly her hands were bristling with kunai, her cloak thrown back dramatically, and her eyes alight with determination. They flew through her hands, embedding themselves in the ground and the wood of the surrounding trees, the little pouches attached to them releasing scraps of paper to float around the assembled enemies. The Orcs who hadn't been in the earlier fight laughed at her seemingly poor aim. The ones that _had_ seen it earlier were turning tail and running. She smirked a little as she noticed that; these were definitely smarter than the other Orcs she'd fought. Sakura lifted a single kunai, the exploding tag dangling from it limply and formed a familiar hand sign with her other hand. The tag ignited. The Kunai flew straight. The scraps of paper – tiny pieces of exploding tags – ignited, exploded, and enveloped the Orc-hybrids in a ball of flame. Sakura flipped herself backwards into the treetops, and got herself well away from the explosion with a few well-placed bounds. She stopped on a trunk, clinging horizontally with her feet on the trunk, and looked back with a smirk.

"Sakura Fubuki no Jutsu: Success." She whispered to herself with a triumphant grin lighting her features, and leapt away towards the sounds of battle ahead, where a horn was blaring out over the clashing of weapons and armour.

Boromir. Boromir had a horn. Sakura's eyes widened briefly in realisation and she pushed herself forward. The trees shook a little with the force of her passing, as if in a strong wind, when she burst out of the foliage and landed in the centre of the clearing with enough force to make the ground tremble. The Orcs closest to her stumbled. She dived forwards, kunai in hand, tilting her body low and aiming upwards to catch the nearest under the throat. His black blood stained her blade and splashed across her once-white tunic, but she had no time either for disgust, or to stop and wonder at the strange colour. She spun and released the knife in a smooth throw. She made a frustrated noise as it fell short, hitting the creature in the shoulder and missing his vitals; while she ducked to avoid the blunt edge of the sword the enraged Orc swung at her. A few pink hairs floated past and she realised with mute shock just how close the blade had come to her head. She dropped and spun, extending a leg charged with chakra to swipe the shins out from under the foes around her. She heard a satisfying crack and roar of pain as she broke the nearest one's leg. He dropped, the injury unable to support his weight and she took advantage of his fall to deliver a punch to the face. His body fell in a bloody, crumpled mess and she took a dive-roll over him to avoid a mace that swung down towards her. She took her weight on her hands for the end of the roll and called chakra into them to enhance her hand-spring. She flipped in midair and came down heavily on another Orcs shoulders. Sakura locked her legs around his neck and tossed her weight backwards, breaking his neck and throwing his body into his comrade as she caught herself in a handstand, dropped her legs and hit the ground running. She'd caught sight of Merry and Pippin while she was up on that Orcs shoulders, and damned if she wasn't getting to them. Two enemies fell to her right hook. Three to her poisoned senbon. She threw herself to the ground, and used her speed to slide under the legs of the last Orc in her way. She dispatched him with a drop kick as she came out of her slide and sprang to her feet beside Boromir, slipping into a defensive stance in front of the hobbits with a kunai in each hand.

"You alright?" She asked him a little breathlessly, taking note of the cuts and bruises his face and arms sported, and the harsh pants of his breathing. He expelled air in what was probably a breathless laugh, and tossed his sweaty hair out of his face with a jerk of his head.

"Never better."

She grinned mirthlessly.

"Half for you, and half for me then?"

"By all means, my lady, take as many as you like."

It was all the invitation she needed. Sakura launched herself at the creatures in front of her, the adrenaline of battle thrumming in her veins. She sent a spinning kick at an Orc, which made him go crashing straight through the trunk of the tree he stood in front of, felling it. She caught it before it fell and Boromir gasped as the thick trunk sailed over head and crashed into the throng of Orcs, killing at least three too slow or too stupid to get out of the way. He had little time to admire the girl in action, as he brought his sword up to parry a vicious blow. His sword shuddered with the force of the blows it stopped, and he grit his teeth as pain shot through his arm; the sheer muscle power of these beings was astounding, and it took effort just to prevent the blows from landing. Even so, his sword struck true, and more than one Orc fell to his own blows – but he couldn't keep it up alone. He gathered his breath and retreated towards the hobbits, lifting the Horn of Gondor to his lips and expelling as much air as he could. The call rang out loud and clear, echoing through the woods, and with that sound in his ears Boromir attacked with renewed vigour.

Sakura hissed as a blade slashed the skin of her forearm, a deep wound that immediately soiled the torn edges of the black shirt she wore under the tunic. She ducked the second blow and leapt backwards into a tree, fumbling the landing a bit as she hit the branch and struggling to keep her footing. She lifted a glowing hand to the injury and stitched the muscle tissue back together slowly so as to prevent scar tissue forming in her bicep. To save time she left the skin, instead tugging off her forehead protector and using it as a temporary tourniquet. She surveyed the scene from her position in the tree, they were severely outnumbered, but they were holding their own. She didn't know where Aragorn, Gimli or Legolas were, but she'd felt a tug on her chakra that told her the clone had dispersed itself – which hopefully meant it had found Sam and sent him to Frodo – and she could only trust them to take care of each other.

Sakura suddenly felt dread creep into her heart, and she looked around wildly for the cause. It didn't take her long to find him. An Orc-hybrid was walking purposefully into the clearing, bow in hand and arrow raised. It seemed in slow motion. Sakura leapt forward off the branch as the arrow whistled through the air, and hit Boromir's shoulder with the sickening sound of tearing flesh. He cried out in pain as Sakura barrelled towards what she could only guess to be the leader. She tore through the Orcs with her fists alone, the black blood that stained her arms and gloves meaning nothing to her as she desperately tried to reach that single enemy. Another agonised cry rang out as another arrow struck. She emerged from the throng of Orcs like a lioness, eyes sharp and teeth bared, fist draw back and glowing green, determination mixing with killing intent in her gaze. The string was drawn back. The arrow was released.

Boromir was on his knees, pain radiating like a pulse from the two arrows embedded in his flesh. His vision was blurred, and his chest burned. Through the haze that clouded his mind, he saw a streak of pink dive towards his foe. Sakura grit her teeth as pain lanced through her arm, but did not pull her punch. The hit landed, the chakra puncturing a hole in the chest plate Lurtz wore, and her fist driving directly into the skin of his chest. She flared her chakra in her knuckles and the Orc skidded backwards, his heels leaving tracks in the mud, and she tugged the arrow from her shoulder with a wince while he cradled his chest, wheezing. Good. She'd made sure that chakra _burned._ Adrenaline pumped through her veins, numbing her to the pain and fuelling her vicious determination. She began stalking towards the fallen Orc, but he wasn't done yet. In a flash his bow was in his hand and an arrow sunk into her stomach, at such close range she couldn't help but stumble and gasp in pain. It wasn't far from her old wound, the one she'd sustained from Sasori's katana, and the scar tissue made itself known as the arrow twisted painfully when she moved. The few long seconds that it took for her to right herself and pull out the arrow were all he needed to send another whooshing past her ear. It wasn't until she heard Boromir cry out that she realised he hadn't been aiming for her the second time. Her eyes widened as her head spun, one look over her shoulder was all it took to burn the image into her brain. Boromir staggering. Boromir falling. Merry and Pippin sprang into the fray, running forward with that blind loyalty that people like Naruto inspired and cherished. They were swept up by the Orcs with barely a struggle, as if they weighed nothing at all, but from the corner of her eye she saw Aragorn come swinging around a tree, and turned, eyes blazing toward her enemy. Sakura had tunnel vision, and it was centred on the Orc Leader. The arrow shaft snapped in her hand, and she didn't even bother to pull out the head. She snatched the next arrow out of the air and crushed it into splinters. A single punch took care of the bow. He tried to stand, but Sakura lifted her foot and slammed it into his kneecap, the force enhanced by chakra, and shattered the bone. Then her hand closed around his throat.

"Who sent you?" Her voice was deathly calm, words clipped, and the unspoken threat ringing in the air around them. He spat at her face and sneered. Delicately, she wiped the spittle off her cheek, examined it, curled her fist around it, and slammed it into his face. She wasn't sure if it was the bone-crushing blow to the nose that killed him, or the vice like grip that crushed his air pipe, but the beast fell limp in her hands. She tossed his body away with disgust.

It was then, and only then, that she turned around. There were a fair few bodies around, but the rest had obviously scarpered. She felt chilled as her gaze swept around the clearing and came to rest on Aragorn, leaning over Boromir, who was laid on the ground. She was by his side in a second. She summoned her chakra to her hands, frowning when in flickered – she was low – but managed to stabilise it and let her hands rest gently against his chest. Aragorn moved to pull out the arrows, but Boromir's hand clamped around his wrist and the injured man shook his head weakly. Sakura felt a lump form in her throat as she realised just how much blood he'd already lost, and just how low her chakra reserves were. She couldn't heal him. One look at her devastated face told Aragorn all he needed to know. He reached for Boromir's sword, and pressed it gently into the man's grasp; Boromir clutched it to his chest with a grateful half-grin. Sakura shifted, lifting his head gently and tucking her knees under, so that his head rested in her lap. She placed one hand on his forehead, and the other on his heart, clenching her lips together as he spoke his dying words to Aragorn.

"I will not let the White City fall." Aragorn promised him, his eyes full of truth.

Boromir smiled, his dry lips cracking and his cheeks too pale as he closed his eyes. Sakura almost didn't hear him as his voice faded, but the last two words spoke volumes in the silence.

"…my King."

She closed her eyes tightly, holding back tears, and let the last of her chakra flare in her hands. Boromir's harsh breaths dulled and all too suddenly the clearing was quiet. The silence – the sound of her failure – rang in her ears. Boromir was gone. Merry and Pippin were nowhere in sight, and the fellowship was broken. She had failed.

Sakura stood carefully, gently laying down the fallen man's head and watching blankly as Aragorn said a blessing and kissed his forehead. He pulled the arrows free, and she followed quietly as he and Legolas carried the body out of the clearing and down to the boats. It wasn't until she saw him laid out, shield at his feet and sword on his chest – the classic pose of the dead – that a single tear fell. She steeled herself, she would not dishonour his sacrifice, and stepped up to whisper her own blessing in the language of her home. She took out a kunai, and carefully carved the kanji for courage into the side of the boat, tracing the character with her fingers to remove the splinters from the edges. It had always been her favourite word, and seemed fitting now. The kunai was placed under his hand, beside his sword, as a tribute to his fascination with her world and her power. That done, she stepped onto the surface of the water and slowly pushed the boat out into the current. She stopped in the centre of the river, pointed the bow towards the waterfalls, and eased her grip. The wood scratched roughly against the leather of her gloves as the boat slipped away, gathering speed and finally disappearing over the edge.

"Sayonara, Boromir." She whispered into the wind, head down and hair hiding her face.

She slowly made her way back to the three on the shore, where Legolas stood calf-deep in the water, facing Aragorn.

"You mean not to follow them?" It was more of a statement, a realisation, than a question.

Sakura turned where she stood, barely hearing Aragorn's reply as she searched out the boat on the other side. There was no sign of Sam or Frodo, and she began determinedly repeating the old adage to herself "No news is good news." At least they had safely reached the eastern shore. She struggled to keep her face even as she heard Gimli repeat her own sentiments, and covered it by stripping off her bloodied tunic and ripping the cleaner parts into makeshift bandages. She wrapped them tightly around her injured arm and shoulder, tightening the knot with her teeth.

"It's over then. The fellowship is broken." Gimli's voice was rough with defeat.

"No." Aragorn's curt denial startled her out of her hopeless reverie, and she found herself looking to him for guidance. She'd failed, and now she felt lost, hopeless. She'd never been much of an optimist. Aragorn fixed her with a firm look, and the tone of his voice left no room for argument. That was the voice of a born leader.

"We will not abandon Merry and Pippin to their fate."

Sakura felt a flicker of hope, and fuelled by Aragorn's hard stare it slowly bloomed into a new kind of determination. She watched as he fixed his gauntlets firmly around his wrists, and picked up his sword and bow. Sakura searched his eyes, and only found the same sureness and resolve she saw in Naruto's. The flicker became a flame. Sakura gave him one short, sharp nod of her head. She still had a promise to keep, and Konoha nin kept their promises. She would not fail again.

He tossed her pack to her, and glanced once at the boat across the river, before fixing them with a purposeful smirk.

"Let's hunt some Orc."


	26. Chapter 25: To Father a Nut

Sakura shifted her weight wearily, and wrapped her cloak tighter about herself as she shivered. Then she winced. The almost violent shiver did little to warm her in the cold night air, and did more to pull at her wounds than anything else. She ignored the brief flash of concern on Aragorn's face, and reached up a pale hand to rub gently at her bandages. She hadn't healed the wounds yet. They weren't life-threatening, and she needed to conserve her chakra. Thus – for now at least – she was healing the old fashioned way. Slowly. She almost absent-mindedly sent a short burst of chakra into the injury on her stomach, as a spot of blood appeared on the bandages. But it was only enough to stop the bleeding. She couldn't afford to waste it. Not when they were still no closer to catching up, despite – Sakura glanced at the sky – about 26 hours of travel already, by her reckoning. They were all looking worse for wear. She sent a reassuring smile to Aragorn, who was still looking concerned, and discretely noted the bloodshot eyes and the bags forming under them, that only came from not sleeping at all for over a day. She grimaced slightly to herself as she thought how awful her own face must look right about now. Hell, even the normally unruffled Legolas was looking dishevelled and pale.

The elf rose from his position on the ground, where he'd pressed his ear to better hear the thudding of orc-boots in the distance, and ran a hand through his hair in a rare display of anxiety. Sakura was fairly certain as to what that look meant by now. She huffed in aggravation. They were still too far behind.

"They are moving fast." Legolas murmured, a frown marring his usually calm features. Gimli swore. And Sakura – not for the first time – was more than tempted to vent with a few profanities of her own. She settled for glaring at the horizon and rattling off as many as she could in her head, in _both _of the languages she knew. Unfortunately this didn't distract her as long as she would have liked, as they trudged along, seeing as most swearwords are only four letters long and thus don't take a long time to say. But tracking involved little more than running a lot and occasionally looking intensely at the ground, so a distraction was pretty damn necessary if she didn't want her mind wandering to – for example – the thought of in what state exactly Merry and Pippin would be when they found them again. She started counting torture methods from Moreno Ibiki's recently published "The _Real_ Information Guide" – a helpful little book for any shinobi caught in the field with a questionee and no torture-specialist immediately on hand. Surprisingly few involved outright violence, which (in her humble opinion at the present moment in time) was a bit of a shame. But then again, he'd always had a penchant for messing with your mind, that one. She remembered when he'd proctored the first chuunin exam. Shudder. The only one scarier than him was Anko. Double shudder.

"Are ye cold lass?"

"Uh…yeah. I am a bit. Yeah." Sakura coughed a little awkwardly and turned her head. Like hell was she telling them that she was thinking of torture methods for possible use on the Uruks they were chasing. Or the little black book that detailed said torture methods. Or the fact that, really, she didn't find it all that odd that such a book existed, sold out in the first day and was now making its author a freakishly large amount of money as a key item of any ninja household.

**So, in addition to the large forehead, pink hair, talking to myself, being pretty foul mouthed – at least in my own mind – and pretty damn snarky if not outright angry most of the time, "bloodthirsty" and "vindictive", and just generally weird; we can now add "Sadistic nutjob" to the list. Wonderful. Quite the catch, aren't we?**

Sakura ignored the odd looks she received as she grimaced to herself with a sulky kind of silence, and she wondered dejectedly when exactly she'd started to refer to herself in plural.

**Next thing you know I'll be talking in third person like that weirdo from Akatsuki.**

**Ugh.**

She definitely needed sleep.

Aragorn eyed the pink-haired girl with a mix of confusion, wariness and amusement at the constant flicker of emotions across her face. He was not overly surprised by the irritated twist of her mouth, or the glower she aimed towards whatever happened to be in her sight. They were all exhausted after over a day of non-stop pursuit, and he was well-aware by now of Sakura's nature. Lack of sleep was not good for her attitude in the slightest, and to be honest he was more surprised that she hadn't flown off the handle yet, as he'd seen her do before. His eyes softened. It seemed failure and worry weighed on her shoulders more than he thought. He let his hand land heavily on her shoulder, jolting her out of whatever gloomy thoughts she'd been having. Green eyes met his own curiously. Aragorn halted them, and lifted his gaze to the two in front, who'd stopped and turned to face him. They awaited his instructions silently.

"We cannot go much further without dropping of exhaustion. We will stop, at least for a few hours."

Sakura, for once, was too tired to argue, and just shrugged off his hand gently before plopping down against the nearest handy rock. He joined her quickly, letting his head fall back to thud gently against the boulder and closing his eyes with a weary sigh. He cracked one of them open again as he felt the pink haired girl shifting around next to him, trying to get comfortable. She grunted in frustration. Rocks did not make good pillows. Her body twisted about, trying to find a position that would allow her to sleep. But to no avail; even though she was exhausted, she just couldn't. And the worst of it was that she was probably preventing everyone else from sleeping too, even though they needed it every bit as much as she did. She wanted to scream in frustration. Or just scream, when an arm abruptly wrapped around her shoulders and jerked her sideways. She squirmed a bit in his hold, and looked up huffily through her bangs. His eyes held amusement, but also concern, and his voice was soft when he told her:

"You will be more comfortable. Sleep."

Sakura's cheeks went a little pink, and she muttered under her breath about 'acting like her damn father'. Nevertheless, Sakura settled against Aragorn's side. She found that unlike the rock, his shoulder made a fairly good pillow, and the warmth was a welcome change from the cold stone. She felt him tug her cloak a little closer around her shoulders, and blinked lazily as she felt him begin petting her hair. She remembered her mother doing something similar when she was very small; surprised to find how soothing it was. A silly kind of smile wormed its way onto her face as he began to hum, and then to sing in the elfin tongue, so softly she almost didn't hear. He was trying to sooth her, like she was a distressed child. It wasn't far from the truth she supposed, with a hint of bitterness even in the thinking of it. Even so, the girl couldn't deny that his gentle stroking of her hair and his soft melody were calming. This wasn't Aragorn the Leader, but Aragorn the Man. Possibly Aragorn the Father. With that thought, Sakura moved her arms to embrace him loosely as her eyes drifted shut, wondering what kind of a father he would make one day.

"You'd be a good father…I think…" She murmured, only vaguely aware that she'd spoken out loud.

He turned a surprised gaze to the girl, but it melted away to see her curled against him, breathing even and eyes fast closed. She had finally succumbed to sleep. He watched her for a moment, somewhat stunned by just how young she looked, without the hardened eyes that spoke of a child grown too fast, or the frown that had marred her features near constantly these past days. He patted her head twice with a sigh, and the barest hint of a smile as he recalled her last words before slumber overcame her.

So, she thought he'd make a good father?

His hand moved from her tresses to grasp the elfin necklace around his neck, and he fondly brought it to his lips. Then he finally settled back against the stone and closed his eyes. Despite the gravity of their situation, the loss of Merry and Pippin, Frodo and Sam, Boromir… There was a hint of a smile about his mouth, and he tightened his arm about the sleeping girl.

Perhaps, one day…


	27. Chapter 26: Gaining, soon to be Catching

"_I'm sick of tracking," Naruto whined, earning himself a smack upside the head, courtesy of Sakura. He pouted._

"…_Sakura-chan, that hurt…"_

"_Stop whining Baka."_

_They bounded through the trees in relative silence; the only sound was the soft thump of sandals on branches, and Akamaru's low pants. Kiba abruptly dropped from the canopy with his dog close behind, and together they set about examining something on the ground. Kiba sniffed it lightly, then tugged on a glove and rolled it between his fingers, before holding it out for Akamaru to smell. The dog wrinkled his nose. Even to the humans in the group, it smelled unpleasant._

"_Ugh. Stupid animals. Tracking sucks!" The exclamation drifted down from above, where Naruto was slouched against a tree trunk, arms folded, with an expression of mixed disgust and sulkiness on his face. His bottom lip was stuck out, and his eyebrows were drawn down so much he was also squinting._

"_Oi!" Kiba shouted back irritably, "Shut up Baka! You don't know anything about tracking!"_

"_What's to know? All you do is run and eat shit."_

_There was a sort of strangled choking noise from Kiba, who dropped the offending item._

"_And what sort of idiot can't tell smelling from eating huh? You only hate tracking 'cos you're no good at it!"_

"_Pah." Naruto turned his head away. "Who'd wanna be good at __**that**__?"_

_The answer was something like a growl from the dog-nin, who threw the soiled glove at him. "How about __**you**__ eat shit?"_

_Naruto yelped. Kiba laughed. _

_Naruto glared. Kiba scoffed. _

_Naruto lunged. _

_The boys were soon lost in a cloud of dust and flailing limbs, as they rolled around on the ground like school boys. Muffled insults and yelps occasionally rose from the cloud, accompanied by the loud barking of Akamaru. _

_THUD_

_THUD_

…_silence…_

_**-moan-**_

_Sakura lifted a fist to her mouth and daintily blew the dust off her knuckles, before cracking them with a meaningful glare at the two boys now nursing their heads. They winced._

_In the canopy, Yamato let out a long-suffering sigh. Sometimes, he thought to himself, he really __**really **__missed ANBU…_

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Sakura wrinkled her nose in a blatant display of general disgust. Naruto really was right about the whole tracking thing…

"It's old." Legolas spoke quietly and seriously to Aragorn, who was hunkered down in the bushes next to him and examining the pile of orc-defecation with just as much intensity. She shuddered slightly as it was picked up, smelt, and inspected.

"Two days, at the least, by my reckoning."

"We are getting closer." Aragorn finished, and they stood after roughly wiping their hands on the grass. Sakura made a face.

**I don't give a damn how nice and fatherly and comforting it was last night, there is absolutely **_**No Way**_** in **_**Hell **_**that you are hugging me again until those hands have been not only washed, but scoured and sterilized, and those gloves have been burnt.**

"Oh goody." Gimli's voice - utterly deadpan – cut into her internal rant.

Legolas sent him an irritated look.

"I do not expect a dwarf to understand the intricacies of tracking."

"If that is what you call tracking, then I am glad we do no such thing."

Aragorn sighed in a long-suffering fashion. The few hours of sleep they'd gotten last night – in reality not more than four or five hours ago – did little to sooth the fraying tempers, and this was not the first time that irritation had risen to the surface. He'd done his best to mediate, but his own temper was little better, for the most part. He gestured them onwards with a frown, the action successfully diverting the attention of the elf and the dwarf. They travelled onwards at a swift pace, the light-footed elf at his side, and Sakura hanging back with Gimli. She said it was to conserve energy, but he had seen a stiffness in her movements that suggested her injuries were limiting her more than she cared to admit.

Sakura jogged alongside her short-legged companion, who was currently broody. She could feel Aragorn's eyes on her, and ignored it – he had more important things to be worrying about than her – and sent a numbing shot of chakra to her abdomen. No pain, no problem, right? Her entire left side went blissfully numb. She glanced again at the gloomy dwarf.

"What do you do, if you don't track?"

Gimli looked at her in some surprise, and let out a short huff of air. "We let our food come to us of course – we set traps."

Sakura considered this, watching the forms of Aragorn and Legolas running ahead. She dipped her head slightly and said quietly:

"I like your way better."

Gimli smiled tiredly.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Pippin awoke with a jolt. It soon became clear, that it was the rough jolting of the Uruk who carried him, that woke him up, as his bearer leapt over a protruding rock with a significant lack of grace. Fearfully, the hobbit looked about. The sky was grey; an unbroken cloud that hid the sun and gave no indication as to the time of the day. He and Merry each had their hands and feet tied, and each were on the back of a smelly Uruk. The group of which were currently marching at a fast pace through a craggy ravine. Rock walls rose on either side, and there was grass underfoot. He had no idea where they were. He tried calling quietly to Merry, but his friend was still knocked out and he was too scared to try calling louder. They were, without a doubt, in Big Trouble.

He gasped as his chest collided painfully with the Uruk's shoulder. He'd stopped abruptly in response to the raised fist of their new leader.

"What do you smell?" Their voices were gruff and unpleasant.

"Man flesh," the Uruk replied with a growl and a twist of his lip. "They've caught our trail. Move out!"

'Aragorn!' Pippin thought with desperate relief. But the Uruks had already started moving again, and they were moving fast. In a sudden stroke of inspiration, he dipped his chin and tugged hurriedly at the leaf-pin that held his cloak. It came away, clamped between his teeth, and he spat it over his shoulder as subtly as he could. A orc-boot came down heavily on it, and in two steps the little brooch was out of sight.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Two days, since they'd seen any real solid sign. All they were going on were vibrations, really. Sakura almost wished they'd stumble across another potty break, just so they'd know for sure they were going the right way. She tried not to think of what else they could stumble across. She couldn't let herself think that Merry and Pippin were anything but alive and well.

They paused on a rocky outcrop, letting Gimli catch up, and listening again for the vibrations that told them the Uruks were still on the move. Sakura could feel the rock trembling slightly, as the chakra pooled in her feet and shifted in response. She stood quietly, by Aragorn's shoulder, and watched as he lay against the rock; his ear pressed against the stone. He frowned for a long moment, before his eyes widened in realisation.

"Their pace has quickened," he hissed, jumping to his feet. "They must have caught our scent!"

Sakura's own eyes widened then, and she and Aragorn took off without hesitation.

"Hurry!"

"Come on Gimli!" Legolas called from the ridge, and tore away down the hill after them.

"Three days," the dwarf grumbled as he climbed the hill, "No rest, no food, and no sign of our quarry but what bare rocks can tell." Nevertheless, he was soon sliding down the hill after them, the slippery mud speeding them along. Sakura bounded from rock to rock, heedless of her injuries – if they couldn't catch up she might be forced to use chakra after all – and the last thing she wanted was to enter another fight with low reserves. She'd be of no use to Merry and Pippin then.

The sky changed slowly into a darker shade of grey, with no sign of the sun. There hadn't been for the last three days, and the days seemed to melt into each other as one endless run. Sakura frowned unhappily at the horizon. Her feet pounded the grass-smothered clay; they ran along a flattened ridge that ran the length of the hills, which dropped away on either side into smooth rolling plains, dotted with jutting boulders. There were few animals around, but a flock of birds circled the farthermost hilltops and the occasional rabbit ran skittishly for a hole in the ground. As the sky became darker still, the rocks increased both in size and number, 'til they were running along a narrow path with rock walls on either side and the same smooth grass underfoot. Sakura's eyes narrowed, and she skidded to an abrupt halt.

"Footprints…" she murmured, frowning at the tracks in the clay-like mud. But something else had caught Aragorn's attention, and he was crouched a little further down the way. He rose slowly as Sakura walked to him from one side, and Legolas from the other. Something small and green glittered in his hand.

"Not lightly, do the leaves of Lorien fall." Sakura's fingers rested on the leaf at her own throat, as Aragorn spoke, tracing the outline gently. What did that mean? Legolas' eyes brightened with realisation.

"They may yet be alive."

And Sakura's heart rose from a depth she hadn't known it'd sunk to. If one of the hobbits was able to leave this as a marker for them – then they were unhurt, or at least conscious. The loud crashing of Gimli's fall broke the momentary silence of relief, as he tumbled down the hill into the path.

"Come on Gimli!" Legolas called with much more cheer, as the three sped off with renewed vigour. "They are less than a day ahead of us! We are gaining on them!"

Gaining on them. Soon to catch them.

Sakura grinned.


	28. Chapter 27: The Gap Of Rohan

"The Gap of Rohan…" Aragorn's voice was an awed whisper, as the three stood atop the ridge they'd just crested. Gimli's swearing could be heard somewhere below – a sure sign the dwarf was still on his feet and following.

"Home of the Horse – Lords." This was added mostly for her benefit, Sakura suspected, and nodded distractedly. It was an impressive sight, despite the urgency with which they visited it.

The ridge they stood on curved away to the East and West, arching around in a horse-shoe shape. On one side it swept downwards into smooth flat plains of grass, only broken by the occasional outcrop of rocks – the remnants of some natural disaster long ago. In the far distance, Sakura could see small brown blobs against the horizon, milling aimlessly about their paddocks in the weak afternoon sun. A line of trees – so far they seemed to be nothing but bushes – marked a road, or a boundary of some sort, and though she could see no dwellings Sakura suspected there was a thriving settlement somewhere among all this grass. Men, she guessed, since she had never seen a Dwarf on a horse, nor a Hobbit in any place after Bree, and the elves seemed to prefer forests.

The thud of Gimli's axe sounded beside her, and she turned to see the Dwarf bent with his hands pressed to his knees and panting noisily. Debating for a moment – she was still conserving chakra as much as possible - Sakura lifted a hand, glowing slightly, and rested it gently on his back-plate. She soothed his breathing easily and quickly. The Dwarf nodded his thanks as they turned to watch Legolas leap up onto a high boulder, and the elf craned his neck almost comically in an effort to better see into the distance. Sakura could see the veins in his neck stand out. He squinted slightly, before his eyes abruptly widened in alarm.

"They've changed their course. They are taking the hobbits to Isengard!"

And suddenly there was no time to admire the scenery. Even Aragorn let out a curse. Sakura's brain flashed through scenes of Gandalf's conversation with Elrond, back in Rivendell, of her own talk with Galadriel, of Orc-hybrids who called themselves Uruk-hai and wore the print of a white hand…

"_Sarumon has betrayed us…"_

The Wizard who had betrayed Gandalf, who'd joined up with the enemy, who she'd once planned to trick or bribe into sending her home…_**Who was after her friends.**_

**Find another way home. That bastard is **_**DEAD.**_

Sakura snarled quietly under her breath, subconsciously speeding her footsteps until her soles glowed with chakra and she darted ahead of Legolas; her feet pounding the grass, head forward and arms held behind her to maximise her body's aerodynamics. Aragorn called her name but it was quickly whipped away and she ignored it. Sakura focussed on the horizon, sucked in a breath, and carefully drew chakra to her eyes. It was one thing to enhance one's hearing, but another thing entirely to enhance vision. In a few steps she'd managed to regulate it, though the pulse of chakra behind her corneas made her eyes burn and tears gather at the corners. Nontheless, she could now see a cloud of dust, moving fast, and she fixed her gaze on it. She resolutely ignored the painful tug that running inflicted on her stomach wound – almost certainly to have healed wrong now that it'd been reopened so often in the chase – and downed a soldier pill with a determined chomp. She'd wasted too much time. Sakura didn't know how she'd fair against a full-powered magic-user, and didn't care to find out. But she did know how she faired against Orcs, even these freaky super-power hybrids, and she had hobbits to save.

Aragorn heard a faint "Catch up!" before Sakura's voice drifted away on the wind and the pink haired girl disappeared with a bound. He and Legolas called her name fruitlessly, but she was gone. He was ashamed to realise he'd forgotten how fast she could be. He frowned slightly, fast she may be but she was still injured, and surely she didn't expect to take on an entire band of Uruk's alone?

"Do not worry about her, Aragorn," The elf's voice reassured him softly, "She is strong. Sakura does not need us to take care of her. She will be waiting."

Aragorn scowled darkly at the horizon.

"She'd better be."

**-a day and a half later-**

The rumble of hooves pounded against his ear, and the Ranger threw himself into a sitting position.

"Riders. Out of the Way!" Aragorn barked the order, and the other two travellers hurriedly followed him to shelter behind the nearest outcropping boulder. They crouched down, shielding themselves from view and waited as the thumping of hooves came closer. The frontmost horses cleared the outcrop with a single jump. Their riders sat tall and proud, shields and helmets gleaming in the dying light. The last of the Fellowship waited for what felt like an age as the party passed by, and at last Aragorn stepped out behind the last of them. His voice rang out clearly in the dusky air, and he stood as a proud silhouette atop the rock, his two companions stood silently at his sides.

"Rider's of Rohan! What News from the Mark?"

Without even a shout, the Rider's changed their course, following one of their own – the captain no doubt – as he rode about in a wide arc and brought his horse to a hoof-thumping stop directly in front of them. The men surrounded them, and in seconds they were the centre of a circle of swords and spears. The Captain wore impressive red and silver armour, a pointed helmet on his head from which blonde hair fell, and sharp eyes. He questioned them coldly.

"Give me your name horsemaster, and I'll give ye' mine." Gimli said defiantly.

For a moment the Captain simply glared, then dropped from his horse with practiced ease. He fingered his sword as he stalked forward.

"I would cut off your head, Dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground." He sneered threateningly.

In seconds Legolas had whipped up his bow.

"You would die before your stroke fell."

Aragorn sighed minutely. It wasn't how he'd hoped this meeting would go. He lifted a gloved had and gently pushed down the elf's bow, and with the other placed a calming hand on Gimli's shoulder. To the captain, he nodded.

"Lord Eomer."

Eomer lifted his head, and stared hard at Aragorn, who locked his gaze. He spoke quietly, tiredly.

"We are seeking our friends. They were taken by a band of Orcs, some days ago, we have been tracking them ever since. And another of our party, who went ahead in pursuit."

This seemed to spark recognition in the blonde haired captain.

"This 'other of your party'," He asked dryly, "would not happen to be a small, oddly coloured female, would it?"

The shock showed on their faces.

"You've seen Sakura?"

Eomer was curious to note the sudden rush in the Ranger's voice, and the strange name of the, admittedly, equally strange girl they'd run into not two nights ago. The threatening aura seemed to drain out of him, and he sighed, rubbing his jaw under the cheek plates of his helmet.

"We came upon the band of Orc's you spoke of, not yet two nights hence."

_It was dark. Shadows obscured the moon and the only light was that of the flickering torches carried by the Uruk-Hai. They sat at the edge of the forest, bloated from the meat of a deer carcass still crackling on a large open fire. The wind was both a blessing and a curse. It swept across the trees of the forest, across the Uruk's camp and down the hill. A blessing, because the scent of the horsemen was downwind, and could not be caught by the loathsome creatures; but a curse because the scent of Orc and blood and sweat is not a nice one to have blown into your face. The horses – trained almost from birth – were perfectly trained and made neither a movement nor a sound. For a short moment, there was a gap in the clouds and the moon shone off Eomers raised gauntlet, as he lifted his hand and signalled the charge. And then it was chaos._

_The night was rent with the clashing of swords and the roaring and squealing of Orcs as they fell to blades and hooves. It was utter confusion. Torches were dropped haphazardly by fleeing Orcs. One was snatched up by a Rider as he fell from his horse, and he swung it around to meet the Orc-blade headed for his arm. The blade hit, but the torch lit the Orc's leathers alight and it ran screaming, enveloped in flame and lighting the battlefield as it went. Uruks and Men alike followed its path, leaping out of its way but using the momentary light to get in a quick underhanded slash at their opponents. The was a squishy kind of thud, and suddenly the screaming stopped. The flaming body collapsed to its knees, and keeled over with an odd shaped knife stuck into its throat._

"_Oi, Horse-guys. You're stealing my kills."_

_And a shadow leapt over the light. For a fleeting second, firelight flickered over pink hair, before the shadow launched into the melee with a loud battle cry. A strange word that the horsemen had never heard before, in a voice too high to be a man's._

"_SHANNARO!"_

_The Orcs flew through the air. Eomer ducked as one of the Uruks went flying overhead, and was for a moment frozen in amazement. He watched as a torch was snatched up to illuminate a slip of a girl, with vibrant pink hair, the colour of flowers in spring, and green eyes flashing. The torch was whipped around, and an Orc staggered back clutching at its eyes. She punched it in the collarbone. He heard the snap. Then he was swinging his sword up to meet an oncoming blade, and the girl was lost from his sight._

_Sakura, in desperation, had snatched up the torch from the ground, not to see her enemies but in the vain hope of catching a glimpse of Merry or Pippin. For a second, she'd thought she'd seen a pair of hairy feet, but when she swung the torch around – accidently catching an oncoming Orc across the face – there was no sign of them. In frustration she'd punched the Orc in the collar, though the satisfying snap abated her anger only a little. And if any of these idiot men had trampled them under those hooves, then there would be hell to pay. She ground her teeth. Her fist met the nose of one Uruk, while her opposite heel jerked back to jam into the gut of the Uruk behind her. She swivelled on the other foot and kicked the second away from her, while her hand grabbed the first Orcs hair and swung him by it, around in a circle, and threw him into another of his kin. She snapped her leg back and jumped upwards, avoiding a mace intended to take her kneecaps off. She flipped herself over and extended her leg, coming down with a crack on the back of the brutes neck. He went down in seconds._

_It was suddenly, eerily silent. The light had turned grey, a sign that dawn was approaching, and that soon the sun would rise. Sakura stood amid a circle of horsemen and dead Orcs. She made a strange and fierce picture. Her pink hair was dirty with blood and mud, her shirt was torn and bloody – both her own and the Orcs – and red was seeping over the bandages of her stomach, where she'd once again reopened her wound. Nonetheless Sakura stood with her head up and her hands on her hips. This was partly an act of defiance and a show of strength, but mostly so she could do a little surreptitious healing for her side. Most of the men looked unsure as to whether they should keep their swords up or not. Some of them were blatantly checking out her hair, and one of them was looking at something considerably lower. She cracked her knuckles. He suddenly found the ground immensely interesting. _

_The Kunoichi turned her head slowly from left to right, taking in the company. Then, quite deliberately, she hooked the toe of her boot under the body at her feet, and with a jerk of her leg kicked him clear across the battleground to land with a thud at the leaders feet. She assumed he was the leader. They usually had the most impressive armour, and a certain way of holding themselves. Also, several of the men were looking at him unsurely, as if awaiting orders. He gave none. The blonde man – his hair spilled in a curled unruly mane from under his helmet – kicked the body roughly, as if to check it was really dead. It was. It's head was hanging at a rather odd angle really, due to the breaking of several vertebrae. Sakura took this as initiative to talk._

"_I'm not here to fight you." She began seriously. "I am looking for two of my friends, who were kidnapped by these bastards." She kicked another nearby body to further her point. Fierce green eyes locked onto Eomer's. "You'd better not have trampled them in all that mess." She added in a growl, which had some men doubting her earlier claim._

"_I see nothing but Orcs." His arm gestured to the battleground with a single meaningful sweep._

_Sakura scowled. She didn't want to admit it, but there was a very strong possibility that Merry and Pippin were dead. Right now she was just using anger to cover up her worry, as she often did with Naruto, and even on occasion Sai. She could handle anger._

"_They are hobbits. Halflings." She held a hand up at about the height of four feet. "No more than this high, standing."_

"_In which case, it would have been easy to miss them," the captain allowed graciously. "We are going to clear the battlefield, pile the bodies in a pyre and set it alight. You may join us, and search for your friends."_

_Her eyebrows drew together at his tone, and choice of words, but the pink head simply jerked in a short sharp nod. She appeared to be sizing him up for a minute, before she stepped forward and tilted her chin in a defiant manner._

"_I suppose we are allies, then, at least for now Horse man."_

"_My name is Eomer, lady, Lord of Rohan and Nephew to the King."_

_If he had expected to receive a similar introduction, he was disappointed. Sakura did not give her name, and doubted that she would see this man again anyway. Besides, she had enough bloody Prince's to worry about already. She hoped Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli would catch up soon. Eomer watched, somewhat bemused as she walked away, stopping only to jerk one of his men forward by his shirt and begin berating him about taking care of himself. She slapped a hand to the soldiers bloody wound, and Eomer stepped forward alarmed. Then she disappeared through the crowd, and left a shell-shocked soldier in her wake, flexing his newly healed arm as if he'd never seen it before._

"We did not find the halfling's she spoke of. We set alight the bodies and left, though not without offering her a horse, and our condolences." Eomer's scowl was back again, and he tugged his helmet off to reveal an ugly blue bruise on his jaw. "I got this, for my troubles." He gestured irritably to his cheek. Aragorn winced, sympathetically. No doubt Sakura had reacted badly to such an assumption, though personally he was beginning to fear the worst.

Gimli snorted. "You're lucky she didn't hit ye' hard lad."

Eomer looked at the Dwarf like he'd grown an extra head. The Dwarf grinned at him. Aragorn deemed it prudent to interrupt before Eomer made good on his earlier threat. A man did not take kindly to being punched in the face by a woman, after all, it was most damaging to one's pride.

"Do you know where she may be now?"

The Rohan Captain shrugged, and replaced his helmet. "She went into the forest to look for them. From there, I know not." He gestured two horses forwards. "Take them, and search for your friends, and your woman. May they bear you to better fortune than their former masters."

The reins safely in Aragorns hand, the horse lord mounted his steed and turned it's nose East. "We ride East. I and those loyal to me have been banished from the land of Rohan." The last was said with a bitterness that was unmistakable, and Aragorn was suddenly wondrous that he hadn't been worse during their little meeting. He wondered what could have lead the King to turn his back on his own nephew, and it spoke of dark things he'd rather not yet consider. To the young Captain he offered a short bow.

"Ride well. You have my gratitude."

A nod was his response, and the raised hand signalled his riders forward. They moved in an effortless flow, like water around a post, past the three travellers. Within minutes they were a retreating blur, and soon were lost in a cloud of dust, and even the thump of a hundred hooves faded away.

Aragorn swung himself into the saddle, and urged the brown horse into a trot, headed towards the pillar of smoke on the horizon. Legolas heaved his Dwarf friend onto the other, and leapt up in front of him to take the reins.

"Wait for us Sakura," he murmured, "We are catching up."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**_Short Author Note:_**

**_Sorry for the recent lag in my updates - I have exams at the moment, but please bear with it for a couple more weeks and I'll try not to take too long to get them up :) I'll also try to make it up to you with longer chapters. K? K ^.^_**


	29. Chapter 28: The Trees Have It In For Me

Sakura cursed as she tumbled from the tree branches. Again. Landing with a soft thump, bending her knees and bracing her palms on the ground to steady herself, Sakura craned back her neck and peered upwards. Now, normally, when tree jumping you gathered chakra in your feet and kept up a steady flow in pace with the chakra of the trees. But these old grey trees, which towered over her and cast the entire forest into gloom, were odd. Their chakra fluctuated, and instead of a steady flow it spiked randomly – tossing her off the branches and down to the ground, each and every time. She scowled darkly.

Sakura stood carefully, brushing a leaf out of her hair. Strange. All around her there was no sound, save for that of creaky branches, and that scraping sound you get when one tree moves against another in the wind. There wasn't any wind.

Sakura shivered when she noticed this.

**Ok…sufficiently creepy…**

The trees around her did not move, but she had an inexplicable feeling that they were closing in…she felt claustrophobic. A wary glance about herself showed no signs of a path, nor any signs of the hobbits. Knurled and twisted trunks loomed through the shadow of the forest floor, and curled away into a canopy so thick, not a speck of light could be seen through it. She wasn't even sure if there _was_ any light to come through. Sakura began walking thoughtfully, as she tried to figure out what day it was, or what time. She had left Eomer and the horsemen at dawn, and had searched the edges of the forest for the better part of the day before plunging in, and getting lost. She had slept once during that time, though she'd pushed herself to stay awake as long as possible, and guessed to have been travelling for a good six hours since then. Her stomach grumbled at the reminder. It was briefly quieted with a few scraps of lembas bread, found lurking at the bottom of her pack. And that was it. A short and futile search showed that there were no berries or edible roots in the near vicinity. There was nothing in this big dead forest but trees shadows and whispers. For a moment, she imagined that the trees might be talking to each other…

She smacked herself hard. She was a big bad ninja, not some scared little kid. She needed to stop letting her imagination run away with her.

Sakura idly healed the bruise as she stepped over a large protruding root, one which just screamed "I'm here to trip you, and laugh when you fall on your face." Metaphorically of course. Sakura carefully placed a foot over it, stretching her legs out so as to make sure she wasn't even touching the bark. Then equally carefully, lifted her foot high and brought it over the root, to land safely on the other side.

She tripped.

**What the- DID THAT THING JUST MOVE?**

Sakura sputtered, wiping mud off her face roughly with the back of her hand, and spun around to glare at the root in question. It looked exactly the same. And smug.

Sakura did not stop to wonder _how_ exactly a root managed to look smug, but jerked herself to her feet and swiped the dirt off her clothes. Then she kicked it. Hard. And stomped off, leaving little craters where her heels hit the earth. Her grand departure was lessened in effect somewhat, as a branch seemed to come from nowhere and smack her in the stomach. She groaned. Now at this point, most people would curse, and wonder how the hell they managed to miss a branch so big, before passing it off as being an effect of the dark. Sakura cursed loudly, punched the branch into splinters, and _then _cursed the darkness for ruining her perfect 20-20 ninja vision.

A branch fell on her head.

Well, she managed to jump out of the way in time, being a ninja, but it certainly _would_ have landed on her head if she hadn't moved. She was beginning to think this forest had it in for her.

"So help me, if you throw one more sodding branch at me, I will rip apart EVERY DAMNED TREE HERE!"

"I'm afraid threats don't really work on trees."

Sakura picked up the fallen branch and threw it.

It exploded. Sakura shrieked, and threw herself to the ground. Blinding white light flooded the area, and she buried her face in her arms, eyes streaming and stinging from the sheer brightness. She bit her lip painfully as shards of wood hit her skin, leaving deep splinters and long cuts. Her head was down, and she laid flat on her stomach, but her whole form was tense and ready to spring as slow footsteps crunched over fallen pieces of bark. The light receded slowly, and she risked raising her head. It seemed to shine from a stone of some kind, atop a long staff. Silhouetted against it was the hunched form of a man, with flowing robes and long white hair. She caught her breath.

**Galadriel called Sarumon the White Wizard…The Uruks were taking the hobbits to him, which means this Forest could easily be close to that place, Isengard, so this…**

…**Shit.**

The curse word seemed to echo in her brain as the footsteps drew closer. She squinted at the figure, which was reaching out a hand. She flattened herself against the floor, drawing chakra to her plams. The fingers brushed her hair. She sprang.

Sakura surged to her feet, fist glowing and outstretched, and came face to face with a dead man.

She pulled her punch just millimetres from his crooked nose, and her fist hovered there as her eyes widened, and a gasp dropped from her hanging jaw. The wizard cocked his head to the side, and raised a single bushy eyebrow, with a pointed (if a little cross-eyed) look at the knuckles dangling in front of his face. Sakura didn't drop her hand. In fact, he was somewhat surprised to see her suddenly snap out of her shocked stupor and direct a glare at him that he was quite sure would singe his beard, if looks had such power. From what he remembered of this girl though, he should not have been surprised at all, and his memories were returning to him in a slow steady stream, now that she stood in front of him in all her fierce glory.

"Why do you look like my friend?" She hissed mistrustfully. Despite the venom directed at him, the old man felt a warming in his chest, hearing her call him a friend, however indirectly.

"I am only myself, and nobody else," he replied mildly, spreading his arms. "I am reborn."

"Bullshit."

He blinked. Then smiled his kindly smile, and lowered his arms.

"I assure you, Sakura," – for he had at last remembered her name – "that I am me. It is me. Reborn." He repeated, helpfully, benign smile in place.

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he was inwardly alarmed to see her fist – still in front of his nose – tighten ever so slightly. He could stop it, of course, but he had no wish to hurt the girl, and was already feeling quite guilty at the various cuts she was currently sporting, courtesy of one poorly aimed exploding branch. On one hand, he was pleased that she did not immediately trust his word – she would be hard for the likes of Sarumon to fool – but on the other, it was going to be difficult to convince her that he was indeed alive, and standing before her. It would help if he could remember his own name. He'd been secretly hoping for her to call him by it. It would be most embarrassing to have to ask.

He sighed.

Sakura examined his features. Every wrinkle was the same, the age spot under his left eye hadn't gone, those bushy silver eyebrows could still rival Rock Lee's, and that damned twinkle-eyed smile that just made you want to trust in the old man. The only difference was in his hair – which had once been an unruly grey – and now fell about his shoulders in a sleek mane of snow-white. His beard was white too, and neater than she remembered.

**Why would someone pretend to be a lost friend, mimic every detail of their face, yet get the basic features – like hair colour - wrong? **

It made no sense. Sakura narrowed her eyes threateningly, but slowly dropped her fist. It rested on her hip, but the greenish glow about her knuckles left no doubt that it was any less dangerous, or any less likely to meet his nose in the near future. Her voice was short and sharp.

"Prove it."

He seemed to consider this for a moment, as if searching for a reply. His grey eyes were cast upwards in thought, and he brought a thumb and finger to his chin in the classic "thoughtful" pose. Memories, memories. He needed a memory of her, one that he could not know, if he were not him. He smiled as it came to him, a warm day, early in their journey. A friendly game. A silly contest.

"Your name is Haruno Sakura – because in your homeland the family name is pronounced first – and in the language of your home it means "Cherry Blossoms of spring", in full."

Her eyes widened. A good sign. He smiled again, and continued.

"You wish to walk side by side with your teammates. Pippin likes your hair. In a hair contest, you said you should win because of it's uniqueness, but the winner was instead proclaimed to be Bill the pony –" She suddenly cut him off.

" – because he had the most." Sakura's fist dropped from her hip and her hands hung limply by her sides.

"Gandalf?" She whispered, unsurely.

Ah. There it was. His name. Gandalf smiled happily at her.

"It is good to see you again my dear."

"How…?"

His eyes crinkled at the corners, and his smile widened to show his teeth.

"I was rather hoping you would ask that…"

Sakura's jaw dropped further and further as he described a hole with no end, which did in fact, end. A fall, long and dark. A lake. A cold and snow-covered mountain. A battle. A win. A rebirth.

As he finished, and paused to gather his breath – for it was a long tale – Sakura asked a not-completely unexpected question.

"Did you know?" she asked in a small voice, "that you would be reborn?"

He smiled that all-knowing, soothing smile. "Not at all."

"WHAT?"

This time she did hit him. He stumbled back half a step, rubbing his arm in some surprise. He watched the suddenly seething girl nervously.

"You just bloody LET GO, _intending_ to fall to your bloody DEATH? And just left ME bloody HANGING THERE, _crying _and feeling like utter _shit_ cos' I'd let you do it? And Frodo! He couldn't even be unreasonable and blame me for it! EVEN THOUGH HE SHOULD. And now you're here, and you're fucking FINE and acting like INTENTIONALLY dropping to your death is all bloody fine and dandy? You utterly STUPID, _idiotic_,unreasonable OLD MAN!"

She stopped, breathing hard. His wrinkled hand landed softly on top of her head, and gently patted her hair.

"Forgive me for causing you pain, Sakura. You must understand that at the time, I thought there was no other choice."

"There's always a damn choice," she muttered, swiping a hand across suddenly watery green eyes. Sakura gave him a somewhat half hearted glare.

"Don't do it again."

"I shall endeavour not to."

There was a long moment of quiet, in which he kept a look of soft understanding and sympathy on his face. Finally, she looked up and smiled at him. A calm seemed to have fallen over the forest, as the whispers died down to a soft murmur, and the branches were still. Above the canopy, insects hovered lazily among the leaves and in the air, sunning their wings. For a long moment Fanghorn was at peace. Until a shrill, angry voice ripped through the air, and the bugs scattered in alarm.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LEFT MERRY AND PIPPIN WITH A TALKING TREE?"

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**Short Author Note:**

**EDIT: Thank you to Hima for correcting the Japanese translation of Sakura's Name. I freely admit that I know no japanese at all and rely purely on Wikipedia. It's been changed from 'Springtime of Cherry Blossom' to 'Cherry Blossom of Spring'. Hope that makes you happier Hima, and thank you for the correction :)**


	30. Chapter 29: Naruto

The soft click of heels against the floorboards marked the oncoming presence, and in a few hurried steps the woman reached the door she aimed for, smacking it inwards and into the wall with enough force to leave a dent.

BANG

"NARUTO!"

The blonde in question fought the urge to whimper, and bravely covered it up with a defiant jutting of his chin. The woman glared. He glared back. The other occupant of the room could have sworn he saw sparks of lightning crash between their eyes as furious amber met stubborn blue. Kakashi sweat-dropped.

"What's all this racket, huh? I could hear you all away across the other side of the bloody tower!" Tsunade's face crumpled in an ugly frown. A vein was already standing out on her forehead and beginning to throb, and her eyes were narrowed dangerously. Ignoring the warning signs with the knuckle-headed determination that only he possessed, Naruto stuck his nose in the air and jutted out his bottom lip in a pout.

"Well if you weren't keeping me here I wouldn't need to make a racket would I?" he exclaimed loudly, struggling against the ropes currently holding onto the single piece of furniture – an uncomfortable wooden chair, with a wobbly leg on one side.

"If you hadn't gone running off like an idiot I wouldn't need to keep you here!" Tsunade all but growled, and Kakashi subtly edged away. Judging by the repeated flexing of her hands she was itching to punch something.

"Well how the hell am I supposed to find Sakura-chan otherwise, huh?" Naruto yelled at her, struggling violently until the weak leg gave way and the chair toppled comically onto the floor, leaving Naruto with a face full of floorboards and his butt in the air – still tied to the chair. His resulting groan was muffled by the wood.

Urrrrrgh.

Tsunade snorted.

Moodily, Naruto wiggled his bottom and managed to tilt himself onto one side, allowing him to lift his face and send a sulky look at the Hokage. She hid the smile that sprung up when his red face came into view. Instead, she frowned right back at him.

"Why won't you let me find her?"

She hadn't expected that. She had expected another round of loud protests and demands to be released, not sullen silence and quiet accusing words. Tsunade let her frown hold a minute longer before her anger flickered out altogether, and it melted off her face. She breathed a heavy sigh, and lifted chair and boy easily with one hand, setting him back the right way up.

"Do you think I don't want her back every bit as much as you do? Do you think I don't want to believe she's alive? That by some miracle she will come home?"

A determined hardening of his eyes answered her. There was no doubt either in Naruto's face, or his words.

"She is. She will."

The Sannin closed her eyes tiredly, and let out another sigh. "I want to believe it Naruto."

"So why!" Naruto's raised voice was cut off by a sharp slap across the head.

"Because I can't have you running off into the wilderness on your own on some wild goose chase that could get you killed! What were you thinking?" She clipped his ear again as he opened his mouth to reply, and he snapped it shut again obediently. "I'm not done yet," she snarled. Naruto wilted as the old lady continued her rant. "What were you thinking plunging off after Uchiha huh? That _maybe_ if you fought him he would tell you where she is? Or maybe you hoped he'd use the same technique on you and you'd go to the same place? That's assuming she actually _went somewhere _and isn't just a smoking pile of ash on the grou-"

"SHUT UP!"

Her jaw dropped. Naruto's eyes were glistening half with unshed tears and half with pure unadulterated fury. "Sakura-chan is alive. I know she is. So Goddammit let me find her!"

"How?" she snarled, "You obviously didn't have much of a plan in mind last time did you?"

Naruto grit his teeth in frustration. Ok, so he conceded he didn't have much of a plan last time. All he'd had to go on was a sudden, unexplainable surety that she was still alive somewhere and waiting for him to find her. And off he'd gone. Hell, he'd run right out of the bloody funeral and out of the gates. Of course it hadn't taken long for Kakashi to catch him – at this recollection he narrowed his eyes at said teacher, who was currently hiding his face behind his book and pretending to be oblivious. But she'd been fighting _Sasuke_. The bastard was his only lead and he'd be damned if he didn't do something about it. He said as much.

"Oh? Are you sure you weren't just hoping to have a little present ready for her when she miraculously returns? Kill two birds with one stone perhaps?" The unwelcome voice had every body in the room stiffening. Elder Homura, the speaker, stood in the doorway, flanked as always by Elder Koharu. Tsunade bristled visibly.

"I believe I told you that I would handle this," she said in a voice dripping with suppressed anger. These two were the last people she needed interfering.

The elders offered her tight lipped and blatantly fake smiles.

"You know we act only in the best wishes of the village Tsunade-hime, and in this case, we felt our ah, _assistance _would be most…beneficial."

Benign smile. Glare.

"Is that so?" Tsunade seethed through clenched teeth.

"When our greatest weapon runs away from the village in a time of encroaching war, it is a concern to all Tsunade-hime." Koharu's voice sounded like a particularly fat toad croaking away in a dusty attic, and was just as unwelcome. Naruto's form was tense, and he glared hard at the floor, bangs across his face and obscuring his eyes with shadows. There was an angry tightening around Tsunade's mouth as her lips became a thin line, and she drew herself up to her full height, eyes hard and staring down the two elders.

"When _Naruto_ goes in search of his lost teammate, it is no concern to anyone but himself and those close to them." Her eyes flashed angrily.

"Nontheless," Elder Koharu interrupted sharply, as if she had every right to do so, "We must insist that he be confined within the village borders. This is not the time for foolish hunts after red herrings."

"I agree," Tsunade replied smoothly, shocking everyone in the room. Naruto sat up abruptly, a look bordering on betrayal flickering across his face. She smiled, overly sweet, "there is little sense in running off without a clue. With that in mind, I hereby grant Uzumaki Naruto full and unrestricted access to my personal archives and any and all files in the Tower's Library and Databases. In order to gather information pertinent to the jutsu used on his teammate, Haruno Sakura, and with the ultimate goal of finding said teammate. I am assigning it as a B-class mission, effective immediately. He is to be assisted by Hatake Kakashi and all findings are to be reported to me." She didn't take her eyes off the appalled elders, as her smile fought to become a smirk, and she addressed Kakashi over her shoulder. "Take Naruto to my personal Library will you? Wouldn't want to keep you both from your mission."

A smirking Naruto left the room (still rubbing his arms where the ropes had dug in) along with an eye-crinkling (which probably meant smiling) Kakashi. If anyone could unravel the sharingan-users jutsu and find Sakura it was those two. Tsunade tamed her mouth back into an innocent smile. "Well, that should see to it that he doesn't leave the village for a bit. And Please," she headed toward the door, "if you have anymore concerns," she paused and shot them a winning smile over her shoulder, "Don't hesitate to piss off."

The angry spluttering behind her was the icing on the cake.

**~short author note~**

**Apologies for the lateness, but now you know why we haven't seen any action on the Naruto front yet **** Will he figure out what happened to Sakura? Yes, when the author decides exactly which jutsu got her to middle earth in the first place…this story is pretty much make-it-up-as-i-go **** But will he find her or will she get home by herself? Now that is the million dollar question.**


	31. Chapter 30: Fanghorn Forest

_Gandalf watched in something like horrified fascination, wincing as the sleek knife sliced cleanly through the skin. He tried no to stare as a drop of blood bubbled up from the cut and pooled itself into a heavy drop, which dropped abruptly from the wound and rolled away down her stomach. Sakura hummed to herself._

"_Is that…really necessary?"_

_She shot him a slightly annoyed look – a slight pout and a drawing of her eyebrows – and carelessly rolled her eyes._

"_Yes," was the simple answer. For a moment the old man was silent, before he opened his mouth again as if to speak, thought better of it, and closed it with a slight smack of his lips. He settled for tilting his head away and making a show of not looking. The girl had pulled her shirt up far too high to be decent after all._

_Sakura groaned exasperatedly. "My wound healed wrong, and if I didn't reopen it and close it properly the scar tissue could restrict my movement." She sent him a flat look, all the while holding a steady stream of chakra over her stomach. "In my line of business that could mean death – and I don't know about you, but this is a little better than that don't you think? You should know, anyway, you did die." The last part was said in a fairly accusing tone, and the wizard bowed his head apologetically. _

"_It was infected anyway," she added carelessly, as if sucking out toxins was something she did everyday. He eyed the girls wound, which appeared to be slowly knitting itself back together from the inside, and not for the first time wondered if, yes actually, she did. _

_He had to admit though, that of the girls many strange ability's this had to be his favourite to watch. There was something truly mystical about the glow around her hand, like energy flowing from her palm and into her skin, binding torn flesh until nothing but the faint pink of new skin adorned her arms, and no wound was in sight. That faint green glow, he thought, was the ultimate sign of life and renewal, if ever there was one. _

_His musings were broken by a sharp movement from the girl in front of him. Sakura had hopped off her rock, and was standing straight, poking her stomach with a thin finger as if testing it. It was apparently deemed satisfactory, and she tugged her shirt down to her waist again. _

"_Better?" he asked mildly._

"_Much," she replied, satisfied._

_He was curious to see that she didn't heal the scratches left by the explosion of the tree earlier, despite the fact that they criss-crossed up her arms and left her skin looking like a patchwork blanket. Nor did she rid herself of the bruises that littered her body, dark purple or yellow splotches that peeked out from under her sleeves or through the rips in her shirt. He watched as she peeled the strange head band she wore from her upper arm, and sent a shot of healing chakra into the old wound to clear out any infection. Having apparently deemed it satisfactory also, she stowed the metal band in the pouch on her hip. No doubt she'd seen the blood on the back of it and preferred to keep it out of her hair for the time being._

Aragorn knelt in the muddy grass, ignoring the cold wetness that seeped through the knees of his trousers. He ran his hand gently across the ground, fingers tracing a barely visible indent – a flattening of the grass and compressing of the mud – that said somebody had lain there. There were two, to his trained eye, and he could tell easily enough that these were no sleeping orcs. They were too small, too stocky to be the mighty Uruk-hai that had taken Merry and Pippin. No, he sighed regretfully, there was no doubt that hobbits had laid here.

"They were bound," he muttered quietly to the elf and the dwarf that crouched next to him. His eyes scanned the ground, and he crawled forward on his stomach, mimicking the pattern in the damp earth. His wrists brushed against something coarse and rough, and he sat up quickly. It was a length of rope, still tightly knotted but…

"Their bonds were cut…" he murmured softly in realisation. He began looking about in earnest, rechecking the earth for a sign, any sign he had missed. He crawled forward on his hands and knees, ignoring the mud seeping between his fingers as he searched through the grass. Marks of a scuffle in the grass, and the indent of a knee, as if someone had fallen here. Half a curve of a toe there. He cursed the hoof-prints that covered every spare inch of the ground, smothering the tracks.

"Aragorn!"

He whipped his head around to see Legolas bent at the knees, examining something on the ground a few yards away. As he neared it, a flash of light seemed to glint of it's surface and he realised that the object must be made of metal. His eyes widened as he reached the elf.

It was one of Sakura's knives, laid flat against the ground in a manner that could not have been accidental. It had been wiped clean, by the looks of it, as if to maximise its chances of catching the light and leading an observer to it. As if it was meant to be found. But if that wasn't enough of a clue, a rough circle had been drawn around it, so that it sat in the middle like the arrow of a compass. He raised his eyes from the point of the knife to the dark mass of trees ahead.

"Fanghorn Forest," he whispered, pocketing the knife and striding purposefully toward the trees without a look back.

Gimli shivered as they neared the knarled and twisted trees.

"What devilry would possess them to go in there?"

_Sakura rubbed half-heartedly at the smears of blood and dirt on her skin. It didn't make her any cleaner in the slightest, not that she'd expected it to. But there were no streams or rivers around so far as she could tell, and Sakura resigned herself to walking around looking like a zombie for another few days at least. She'd never figure out how elves managed to keep looking flawless even after days of travel. Her stomach grumbled loudly at the reminder – she hadn't eaten in days either. Sakura flushed slightly and flattened her palm against her gut as if to stifle the noise. Not that it helped, since the wizard was already chortling at her. It had been a loud grumble._

"_Perhaps, my dear, now that you are healed to your satisfaction," – there was something odd about the way he said 'satisfaction', as if his was not the same as hers – "you would like something to eat?"_

_She nodded eagerly. "What do you have?"_

"_I was fortunate enough to acquire some rations from my good friend before I ran into you," he smiled crookedly; "I also passed a berry bush."_

_She giggled a little and smiled as he passed her what appeared to be some variation of lembas bread, though it was not so sweet, and pulled out a small leather bag which turned out to be packed full with strange blue/black berries – which were to her, totally foreign. She tried one, tentatively. It was tangy, slightly sweet at the same time, and the juices ran out over her fingers and made them sticky. She decided she quite liked them. A silence fell across the little clearing they sat in, one which stretched out just a little past the point of comfort, and seemed an inviting opportunity for a little questioning. There were still a great many things the wizard had yet to answer for, so with that thought in mind the Kunoichi settled herself into a more comfortable position and fixed Gandalf with her best 'questioning' face._

"_So, this friend…"_

"_Treebeard."_

"_Right, the giant walking talking tree…"_

"_Ent."_

"_Right. Giant Walking Talking tree – with a very appropriate name – who is currently babysitting Merry and Pippin…?"_

"_Is there something you wish to ask, Sakura?"_

"_Why, exactly, did you leave Merry and Pippin with a giant walking talking tree, instead of bringing them with you and having us all regroup?"_

"_Treebeard will see to it that they do not do anything foolish."_

"_That has not been a problem before."_

"_Before, I did not suspect foul goings-on in Rohan. I fear Sarumon's interference and if I can help it I would prefer to keep the hobbits safely away from it until further notice."_

"_I see."_

_The tone of her voice was one that said quite clearly "I do not see at all so you better start explaining yourself before I hit something". Gandalf however, merely hummed and filled his mouth with bread, effectively restricting his capacity to answer. She huffed and turned her head away, resting her chin in one hand and supporting her elbow with the other, all too aware that he'd done it on purpose. She wasn't all too sure that she shared Gandalf's confidence in talking trees. Without thinking, she rubbed her stomach again, shifting uncomfortably as her fingers touched an unexpected bruise. Of course Gandalf noticed._

_Mouth miraculously free of food, he called out to her in a soft but stern voice._

"_You should tend to your other wounds."_

_She turned to face him again, looking confused. He raised an eyebrow and gestured to her arms, which she cast her eyes over quickly and dismissed just as fast._

"_Why should I bother? These are only minor; cuts and bruises are hardly worth wasting chakra over."_

"_Surely you have enough…chakra…to heal those too?" He hesitated slightly over the foreign word._

_Sakura shrugged. "If I heal these now, who's to say I won't be wasting chakra that I'll need in a battle later?"_

"_Do you expect to be in a battle later?"_

"_I always expect to be in a battle later."_


	32. Chapter 31: She Threw A Tree At Me

_Merry and Pippin tripped over themselves in their haste to get away, the sounds of screaming Uruks and clashing swords still echoing in their ears, even though the last evidence of the battle had long since been swallowed by the thick trees. The branches overhead creaked and whispered ominously, and even the roots under their feet seemed determined to hinder their flight. Pippin collapsed exhausted on a bank of soil, piled smoothly against the trunk of a knurled grey tree, between two of its thick roots, and panting he pulled Merry down with him. For a moment they held their laboured breaths, listening intently as they lay in the dirt._

"_I think…" Pippin's voice was broken by his short gasps for air, "that… we lost them…"_

"_I think…" Merry answered in kind, "that we lost ourselves." His eyes darted restlessly about the area, taking in the unfamiliar and utterly maze-like forest. It was then that a rustle in the bushes caught his frantic gaze, and suddenly the hobbits were scrambling for cover, as the dirty and greasy looking Orc who'd chased them appeared through the foliage. Merry quickly pulled his kinsman behind a tree with a short sharp curse. The loud footfalls and harsh clinking of the Orcs armour got steadily louder as he neared them, his mocking voice taunting them all the while. _

_And he suddenly went silent. The hobbits froze. Nothing. Slowly, Pippin shifted around the trunk, carefully peering around the bark…and came face to face with the leering enemy. He cried out in fear and shock, and only Merry's sharp tug on his cloak prevented him falling on his backside. The jeering laughter followed them like a curse as the hobbits fled through the trees, the lurching creature on their heels._

"_The trees, Pip! Climb the trees!"_

"_Merry!"_

_Pippin's call rang out in a shrill cry, as he watched his friend tugged ruthlessly from the tree and thrown onto his back. "Merry!"_

_The Ent was not used to waking up with a high voice in his ear and the stench of Orc in his forest – the combination at once made him curious and angry. His first sight on opening his eyes was a small scared looking creature, whose body was shaped similarly to an Orcs. It's terrified eyes widened dramatically as they met his, and the thing immediately tried to let go, only to be caught and tightly clenched in his hand. There was another on the ground, but it was the unmistakable creature that stood over it which caught his attention – this foul thing was an Orc without a doubt – and Treebeard didn't even hesitate as he simultaneously scooped up the second "little Orc" and brought his foot down on the big Orcs head. Like squashing an ant. _

Gimli's fingers brushed over the black liquid, which covered the leaves of a nearby bush. Hesitantly, he sniffed it, then brought his fingers to his mouth and tapped the ends of his fingers against his tongue. He spat on the ground.

"Orc blood," the dwarf growled, spitting again for good measure. But his companions paid little attention to his discovery. Aragorn was crouched, examining the ground with a concerned and weary gaze, while Legolas seemed to be trying to take in the entire wood with his searching eyes.

"These are strange tracks…"

"This forest is old…"

Man and Dwarf looked up, startled slightly at the tone of half-reverence, and half-fear, that had crept into the elf's voice. He was staring strangely at the canopy, as if seeing or hearing something that only he could.

"Very Old. Full of memory…and anger…" The elf's brows creased as a loud creak sounded out, and the branches seemed to move over head, in a breeze that wasn't there. Alarmed, Gimli jerked his axe upwards, his eyes darting about the surrounding trees. The noise came again, louder and more menacing, and Aragorn quickly hissed a command to lower his weapon. Gimli was reluctant to do so. It took an encouraging nod from the elf, and an urgent look from the man, before he slowly straightened his posture and let his axe fall submissively to his side. He raised his other hand in silent surrender, just in case, eyeing the trees distrustfully. To his relief, the groaning faded to a low whisper, somewhere high over their heads.

Legolas frowned, tilting his head as if to better listen to the noises of the canopy.

"The trees are talking to each other…" he said in slow realisation, then to Aragorn in alarmed elvish "Something's out there!"

The ranger quickly appeared at his side, answering hurriedly "What do you hear?"

They spared no time to translate for the dwarf, who huffed irritably at being left out, since he spoke none of the language. His irritation gave way to a tense and ready stance, as Legolas switched back to the common tongue and said with a voice like lead, blue eyes wide "The white wizard approaches."

"Don't let him speak," Aragorn warned, "he will put a spell on us."

Silently, Gimli tugged his second axe from his belt and held both weapons in a ready stance, while Legolas already had an arrow straining against the string of his bow. Aragorn brought his sword arm up, the blade gleaming in front of him as a white glow seemed to grow from the figure approaching them. And suddenly, that glow was a brilliant eye-scarring white, bright and compelling. His sword began to lower as if with a mind of its own.

"Show yourself!" Aragorn shouted angrily, shielding his eyes with a raised arm, and struggling to retain his grip on his suddenly heavier sword. A whistle told him that Legolas had unleashed his arrow, but a slim hand seemed to shoot out of the light itself, grasping the shaft between two fingers alone.

"I wouldn't bother if I were you."

He dropped his sword.

Slowly the light began to recede, shrinking away almost as if it had never been there, and the two people shielded by it were revealed. Sakura stood with one hand on her hip, an odd mix of relief, amusement and the urge to roll her eyes apparent on her face. Her pink hair fell messily about her head, and her clothes and skin were even dirtier than before, but she stood straighter and taller – she no longer favoured her injured side – and Aragorn realised with relief that finally her wound was healed. Her hand was still in the air, firmly grasping the arrow with her fingers.

"You're safe," he breathed, barely loud enough to hear, but she smiled at him anyway.

"What devilry is this?" Gimli's gruff whisper cut through his thoughts, and Aragorn immediately switched his attention to the elderly man who stood a half-step behind the girl. He felt his eyes widen in shock and recognition, as he took in the familiar crooked nose and bushy eyebrows, the long beard and those eyes that seemed to look right through a man.

"It cannot be…" His own voice was hushed and awed. "You fell."

"He did," Sakura answered him, casually tossing Legolas' arrow back to the elf, who just barely caught it. He looked back and forth between her and the wizard, bewilderment evident on his face.

"Indeed I did," the old man spoke up at last, stepping forward with a gentle and reassuring smile. "I fell far, too far."

Sakura was only half-listening as Gandalf told his story once again, instead checking her three friends over for any visible injuries. She couldn't see any, and the way they stood didn't indicate any hidden wounds, only stiff joints and exhaustion. She frowned a little to herself, taking in their travel-worn and haggard appearances.

"…until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside." Gandalf concluded his tale dramatically, and she took it as her cue to tune in again.

"I have been sent back until my task is done." He added, in a softer and more serious tone.

For a moment there was only stunned silence, and only Sakura looked indifferent to the amazing tale. Aragorn guessed that she'd already heard it, and he suspected that with her nature Gandalf would have had a much harder time convincing Sakura of the truth in his words. That she had accepted it was proof enough for him, and with no further doubts he stepped forward and embraced the old man.

"Welcome back, Old Friend."

The wizard chuckled, and patted his shoulder fondly as the Ranger pulled away. Apparently Legolas and Gimli had come to a similar conclusion, as the elf stepped forward and greeted Gandalf in the elvin way. Gimli however was looking at Sakura, and abruptly burst into laughter. He barely managed to get his words through his chuckles:

"I don't envy you dealin' with Lassy here when she ran into ya'!"

The pink haired girl flushed and turned her head away with a soft 'hmph', while the Wizard's face morphed into a slightly pained expression.

"She threw a tree at me."

"You threw it back!"

The last of the tension in the air appeared to dissipate, and Aragorn found himself smiling fondly as Sakura stuck her tongue out at the laughing Dwarf and the smirking Legolas. It was almost like when then fellowship began, when their travels didn't feel so serious. But that thought suddenly brought to mind the reason for the serious turn in their journey, the reason for Sakura's separation from them, and the reason for their presence in Fanghorn. With a sudden urgency in his voice, he interrupted the playful banter.

"Merry and Pippin, where are they? Are they Safe? Did you find them?"

To his surprise, Sakura cast a half-exasperated and half-irritated look at Gandalf before she answered him. Gandalf studiously ignored it.

"Here – somewhere – yes, and yes – well, Gandalf did – they were _found _anyway."

Aragorn gave her an annoyed look.

"He left them with a talking tree." She clarified, helpfully.

There was a brief silence, in which Aragorn digested this odd piece of information.

"…what?"


	33. Chapter 32: Don't Touch My Pointy Things

**Short Author Note: I apologise for the terribly long lapse in updates – I have just had my end-of-year exams for uni, and the combination of assignments, study, and the exams themselves has unfortunately held me up. I'm back now though! Updates shall (hopefully) be a bit more frequent now. Please know that I have no intention of simply abandoning this story (it really annoys me when people do that, so I refuse to do it myself!) and that even if updates are slow they will get here eventually :) Thanks to everyone who reviews – I read all of them even if I don't reply to them all :) **

Sakura, Aragorn mused to himself, sometimes seemed to be more at home in the treetops than on the ground. Lazily, he tilted his head backward, and watched the pink haired girl bound carelessly from branch to branch above him. For the most part, the forest seemed to be behaving itself now, and she only had to dodge the occasional branch or catch herself from the occasional, inexplicable slip. He grinned amusedly as Sakura caught his eye, and promptly performed a perfectly executed aerial somersault.

'Show off' he muttered under his breath. Legolas glanced back at him with a laugh, having been the only one to hear him – the others simply looked at the elf oddly, or in Sakura's case, ignored it and continued to flit through the trees. She was, in fact, keeping up something of a scout. After all, Gimli had mentioned finding orc-blood earlier and Sakura wasn't willing to relax her guard just yet. The last thing she needed was more injuries to heal. Most especially if Gandalf was correct in his judgement, and there was something amiss in Rohan. From the sound of things they were going to have to kill or de-throne a King – and that was always a messy business, in her limited experience. People tended to get touchy about that sort of thing.

Slowly, the darkness of the deep forest abated, and more sunlight pushed its way through the canopy. The trees had thinned out somewhat here, the path became more clear, and at last the group emerged from Fangorn and stood blinking dazedly in the sunlight. They stood hesitantly at the edge of the trees, which looked less sombre somehow, in the light of the sun, and waited for Gandalf's instruction. This side of the forest looked out over the vast rolling lands of the Rohirrim, and before them, a wide expanse of green grass opened out and a soft breeze made the long blades ripple. The land sloped upwards some distance away and turned into hillocks which were not tall enough to be hills, but still obscured the view of anything beyond them. It was in that direction though, than Gandalf had indicated Edoras to be – the city of the Horse-Lords – and their newest destination.

The wizard stood tall between the forest and the grass, lifting his staff into the air so that the stone inset in the top glinted in the sunlight. He let out a shrill, piercing whistle and held the note for a minute, before letting out a second whistle, lower and longer. Sakura guessed it to be a signal of some kind, but for who she couldn't imagine. For a long moment nothing happened. The wind gently teased her hair, and she huffily brushed the now-long pink strands away from her face, unwilling to miss anything. Sakura's sharp green eyes scanned the scene critically, but could see no signs of anyone approaching. Gandalf however, was looking expectantly toward the hillocks and seemed quite comfortable to wait. Bemused, the remains of the fellowship glanced about, until a soft, happy exhale alerted them to the fact that Gandalf's guest had arrived. Sakura's eyes widened comically as she finally saw him.

Now, Sakura was the first to admit that she didn't know a lot about horses – they weren't common in Konoha – but even she could tell that the huge white beast making its way toward them was something special. She guessed, judging by the slightly awed expressions on Legolas and Aragorn's faces, that she was right in that assumption. Gimli, however, looked rather like he knew about as much as her, and was looking at the horse rather blankly.

**Here's guessing they're not so many common in underground tunnels either.**

"If I'm not mistaken, that is one of the maerras." Legolas' voice was decidedly impressed.

"He is." Gandalf confirmed modestly, "I have tamed him, and named him Shadowfax."

Somehow, she got the impression that this was something of rather more consequence than she understood. The horse trotted up to them fearlessly, and gently nudged Gandalf's hand with his nose. He was followed by two other horses, one white (who looked more like a grey next to the gleam of the stallion's coat) and another chestnut brown. While Gandalf's horse was bare, the other two horses bore worn brown leather saddles and bridles. Looking more closely, there was a difference in patches of their coats – dusty and clean areas that suggested that they'd been wearing full battle armour until recently – and tied firmly to the saddle of the brown horse appeared to be Aragorn's worn travel-pack.

"Erod. Hasalof." Aragorn smiled happily, stepping forward to fondly pet the brown horse, now identified as his.

"Where did you get the horses?" Sakura asked him curiously, taking a nervous half-step back as Hasalof nudged her. Aragorn, damn him, actually laughed out loud at her.

"We are in horse country – you should get used to them."

Aragorn gently grasped her wrist and tugged her forward, flattening her palm against the softest part of the horses nose and moving her wrist upward and downward in the same way one would encourage a small child to pet an animal. Sakura smiled slowly as he nickered at her, and nudged her again as if asking for more attention. She had almost forgotten that she'd asked a question when Aragorn suddenly answered.

"We ran into a league of Riders, the Horsemen of the Rohirrim, led by Eomer son of Eodrid." Aragorn paused, looking at her meaningfully over Hasalof's neck as if waiting for a reaction. She summoned the most innocent expression she possibly could.

"Really?" She said, as if she had honestly never heard the name before, and was merely expressing a passing interest in the kindness of a stranger, "Well, it was nice of him to give you some horses then."

"Yes, it was." Aragorn said agreeably, "especially considering his bad fortune. As if being banished from his own country wasn't enough, would you believe he got into a scuffle with those same Uruk's we were chasing? He came away with quite the bruise on his jaw."

Aragorn's tone suggested that they were doing nothing more than talking about the weather, but his eyes were sharp as he fixed her with an analytical look and a raised eyebrow.

"Did he now? Well, those Uruks do hit rather hard don't they…?" Sakura very studiously began brushing dust off of Hasalof with her hands, with her face a carefully arranged picture of innocence.

"Not as hard as some, I dare say." He replied somewhat sarcastically, and moved around the horse to stand in front of her, arms folded and a stern look on his face.

She had the grace to look sheepish.

"Oh, _that_ Eomer…" she said as if she'd just only just now remembered hitting the guy solidly in the mouth, and coughed lightly into a fist, "oops?"

He raised an eyebrow, decidedly unimpressed.

"Well he was an ass anyway," she muttered, inciting an eye-roll and a chastising frown from Aragorn.

"If we meet again, you should apologise."

It was said in a stern and immovable voice – Sakura was left in no doubt that Aragorn would make her do it. She grumbled quietly under her breath and crossed her arms with a huff. **Hai Hai. What are you? My Chichioya? **It was only when he looked at her questioningly, that Sakura realised that she'd muttered the last thought under her breath as well, and she coloured slightly. Thankfully she was saved from having to translate by Gandalf's timely interruption. She didn't want explain that, in a round about way, she'd just called him father. **How embarrassing.**

"Aragorn, mount your horse. We make for Edoras," Gandalf called from atop his own mount. Legolas sat astride the grey, with Gimli perched behind him looking distinctly uncomfortable. The Wizard treated Sakura to a thoughtful look, and added in a concerned tone "You should save your strength Sakura, and ride behind him."

She carefully refrained from making a 'bossy old man' comment, given the not so subtle telling-off she'd just received, and instead obediently allowed herself to be hoisted up by the waist and swung onto the horse's back. The old man was right after all. Although, that didn't prevent her sitting rigidly and nervously pooling chakra in her butt, in a vain attempt to stick herself to the horse. She didn't exactly trust it not to toss her off. Aragorn vaulted into the saddle in front of her, motioned for her to hold onto him, and gently guided Hasalof's head toward the hills, beyond which lay the city of the Horse-Lords. As one, the horses took off at a gallop, with Shadowfax flying across the grass at the head of the small troop. Aragorn wheezed slightly as Sakura let out a startled "eep!" and clenched her arms tight about his waist. She watched the ground speed away beneath their hooves, and marvelled quietly to herself at the feel of the animal's muscles moving and clenching rhythmically under her legs. The wind tossed her hair, in the same way that it did when she enhanced her strides with chakra, which had always been a feeling she loved. **I could actually get used to this… **Sakura slowly eased her grip on Aragorn, who was valiantly attempting not to breath too deeply – she realised belatedly that he was letting her feel safe and comfortable with the horse - and was hit with a surge of gratitude. She patted his stomach in silent thanks. She could, Sakura supposed, accept a little well-founded chastising from him on occasion. **What are the chances of seeing that Eomer guy again anyway? **

Edoras loomed ahead, a vast settlement built in terraces, with fortified walls circling the city. The walls were made of strong wooden logs, sharpened into points which stabbed the sky, just daring you to try and cross them; their shadows stretched across the fields like a warning. Sakura sat up a little straighter, taking in her surroundings with a critical eye. Horses were everywhere – if they weren't grazing in the paddocks outside the walls, they were hitched to posts outside buildings or else in use, pulling carts or trotting gracefully down the streets with soldiers and farmers alike on their backs. The soldiers wore a combination of leather, plate and chainmail – all decorated with some sort of horse motif. In fact, as they entered the gates and began moving through the streets, Sakura noticed that the majority of the houses bore some sort of horse-themed decoration – be it an upside down horseshoe nailed above the door, or a carving in the frame of a window. The terraces were supported by retaining walls similar to the outside walls, and swept upwards with curving dirt and gravel roads between them to the north, east, south and west. The levels culminated at the highest point of the hill, where a grand hall and terrace stood proudly atop the crest. There was a lady in white up there, standing out at the edge of the stone terrace.

The woman turned her head, seeming to look directly at them. It was the hair, Sakura supposed moodily, well aware by now that pink-hair was about as normal here as she was. In fact, a fair number of people were staring at them, she noted as she glanced around briefly. When she looked back, the woman was gone.

"Aragorn," she murmured, tugging gently on his sleeve.

"I saw her," He whispered back. "No doubt she has gone to forewarn the King of our presence."

"Is that good or bad?"

He shook his head grimly, and didn't reply. By the way that the guards were emerging from the impressive double doors, Sakura guessed that this wasn't going to be an entirely hospitable meeting.

There were ten men waiting for them as Gandalf slowed Shadowfax to a stop. Sakura kept a wary eye on them, as she allowed Aragorn to help her down from the horse (she didn't need it, but she figured a bit of 'helpless-female-ness' wouldn't hurt. Sometimes it was an advantage to be under-estimated). For his part, Gandalf made a show of getting down gingerly from the stallion, despite the nimble way he'd hopped on him earlier. The moment their feet were on the ground, soldiers stepped forward to hold the horses, though none seemed sure as to how to approach Shadowfax. They eventually settled on holding the other two, and watching him with a mixture of wariness and awe.

"I am to take your weapons," a young Captain announced, and waited expectantly as Aragorn relinquished his sword and bow, and lodged the tip of his dagger into the surface of a wooden table set aside for their arms. He then folded his arms, and treated the soldier to a condescending raised eyebrow. Legolas added his elfin bow and arrows to the table, while Gimli reluctantly handed over his axes. Gandalf's sword was taken from him by Legolas, apparently playing up the feeble old man act, and placed gently on the pile. They made to move forward.

A palm met the wizards chest, holding him back.

"Your staff."

Gandalf looked at his staff in some surprise, before turning an utterly innocent expression on the guard.

"You wouldn't deprive an old man of his walking stick?" He said, the tone of his voice dripping with injured disbelief. The captain gave him an assessing look, one that said plainly 'Yeah right, like I'm buying that', but he let it go. Instead, he looked to Sakura.

"And you, miss?"

She hesitated a moment, but received an encouraging nod from the wizard. She sighed heavily.

Several kunai were produced from her clothing, and flicked absently into the table top, where they stood upright, points embedded in the wood. Her leg pouch landed on the table with a thud and a rattle that hinted at the sheer number of knives encased within, and finally, a large handful of long sharp senbon needles were dropped onto the growing pile.

"Don't touch those," she warned, "I can't remember exactly what I used to poison them. I can't guarantee that I have the antidote on me." The captain paled.

A quick dig through her hip pouch yielded a bunch of paper seals with odd symbols on them, which were placed down gently with the instruction: "Don't touch those either. They explode."

Shuriken were the last to join the table, and they clinked noisily at they hit the surface.

"And those?" The captain asked, with somewhat half-hearted sarcasm.

Sakura smirked, "Those? They are very sharp and pointy. Do try not to take your finger off."

And with that parting shot, she offered her arm to Gandalf, and sauntered through the doors.


	34. Chapter 33: Wizards, Worms and Warriors

The hall was huge, but dimly lit. Heavy curtains flanked the walls, and no doubt when pulled back this room would be full of light. Now though, the daylight was blocked out and shadows filled the corners. There was a line of carved pillars extending the length of the hall on either side, decorated with horses in battle armour and soldiers in various 'battle' poses. Tapestries and flags hid portions of the stone walls, which were made of some dark rock hewn into large squared slabs. A shallow pit built into the stone floor was likely for the purpose of a fire, Sakura surmised, though there was none burning there now. A hole and short hollowed out tube in the roof above the pit suggested its use as a simple chimney. Off to the sides were large thickset wooden tables, not unlike the one set outside for their weapons. They were pushed against the walls, and some had stools stacked atop them. Sakura was willing to guess that this usually functioned as some sort of meeting or war room. The focal point of the room, however, was undoubtedly the magnificent throne that sat upon a raised dias at the far end, with two shallow stone steps leading up to it. By comparison, the frail old man sitting in it seemed tiny and weak. But the crown that rested on his brow was unmistakeable.

**So this is the King. How…disappointing. I expected someone a little more impressive.**

Sakura frowned thoughtfully, and her mind flew to Kakashi' favourite lesson: 'Look underneath the underneath.'

There was a man crouched by the King's right hand, and even as she watched his lips moved, murmuring something for the King's ears only. She didn't like the look of him. In fact, he looked downright unpleasant, and reminded her a little of a rat. His eyes were small, close together, and seemed to dart all over. Those were cowardly eyes, but sharp ones. Sakura's lips tightened. This guy had 'bad news' written all over him…and judging by the filthy looks occasionally sent his way by the blonde woman – probably the same one she'd seen earlier – Sakura wasn't the only one to think so. That must be the Grima Wormtongue she heard mentioned by the young captain.

The group moved forward slowly, with Gandalf leaning on Sakura's arm, and the man, elf and dwarf following closely. The soldiers filed in with a quiet clink of chainmail, and stood silently in the shadows.

"The courtesy of your hall is somewhat lessoned of late, Theoden King." Gandalf's voice was masked, and even Sakura couldn't tell exactly what emotion was in it.

The Kunoichi watched with narrowed eyes as the rat-like man leaned down to the King again, with a hasty glance in their direction. His lips moved, and she bristled as she read the words "Not Welcome" fall from his mouth. True enough, the King immediately replied to Gandalf in kind:

"And why, should I welcome you?" He wheezed, "Gandalf Stormcrow."

The medic in her took notice of the unhealthy hitch in the King's breathing; she noticed the dry, croaky quality to his voice. This was not a healthy man, but he looked ancient, with his long grey whiskers and thin white hair. His eyes were milky and almost vacant as he lifted his head in their direction. But the medic side was over-ruled in favour of the Kunoichi side, which was more preoccupied with the sudden movement of the soldiers towards them, courtesy of a quick hand-signal from rat-man. Both sides decided right there and then that she hated that bastard.

Sakura felt strong hands close around her upper arms on either side, and it was only the sharp look she received from Gandalf, that kept her from tossing them violently into the nearest wall. It was only when they were 'secured' that the King's advisor – he couldn't have been anything else – began to slink toward them. His voice, when he finally spoke aloud, sounded as slimy and unpleasant as he looked.

"I just question my liege," he said, and turned with a sneer to Gandalf. "Late is the hour, in which this _conjuror_ chooses to appear. Lathspell I name him!" He leaned close and curled his lip derisively. "Ill news is an ill guest."

"Be silent! Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth." Gandalf snarled and whipped up his staff, pushing the knurled end into the foul mans throat. "I did not pass through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm."

**Ooh I like that. 'Witless worm'…**

Sakura filed that one away for later use, and watched with a smirk as he retreated, drawing his cloak protectively around himself.

"His staff!" He moaned, "I told you to take the wizards staff!"

At once a great scuffle ensued. Soldiers darted forward to forcefully take the staff from Gandalf, only to find that Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli had wrestled away from their restrainers and were engaging any man that came near the wizard in a vicious bought of fists. Sakura was rather impressed by the way that Aragorn caught a man by the arm and used his momentum to flip him onto his back – it was a move worthy of Sakura herself. She caught his eye with a grin, and promptly grabbed the men who held her by their wrists. She swung them bodily in an arc and sent them flying into their fellow soldiers, who collapsed in a pained heap against the wall near the King's unwholesome advisor. The startled whimper that issued from Wormtongue left her sporting an incredibly satisfied smirk. For his part, Gandalf simply strode forward, ignoring the fighting around him and addressing only the King, even as Aragorn darted in front of him to punch an oncoming soldier in the gut, and Legolas snapped his elbow back into the sternum of one who came behind. Gimli had grabbed Wormtongue by the neck of his robes and pinned him to the floor, with a wicked grin and the warning: "I would stay put, if I were you."

"Theoden!" He called, "Son of Thengel. Too long have you sat in shadow."

Slowly, he approached the dias, raised his staff, and extended his hand toward the King. The soldiers ceased their assault. Every head turned to the scene at the throne. The very air felt thick with tension, as Gandalf spoke softly and waved his hand. "I release you, from this spell."

The silence was long, and suffocating. Sakura watched with wide eyes, wondering if this was magic, and for the first time in a long while wondered if Gandalf could send her home.`

And then, suddenly the King began to laugh. A throaty wheeze issued from him, and a sneer that didn't look like it belonged there appeared on his face. It seemed that Gandalf recognised something in that look, because he suddenly tensed and hissed a single name.

"Sarumon."

Sakura's head whipped around; she knew that name. That was the other wizard - the one who's Uruk-hai had taken Merry and Pippin. Did that mean then that this Grima guy was working for him too? That they had put the King under some sort of spell so as to bring Rohan under their control? Anger rose in her, and she stormed over to where Gimli still held the worm. She caught his cloak in one hand and simultaneously twisted him away from Gimli and pushed him harshly into the wall.

"So this was your Master's doing was it?" She whispered in a voice like ice.

"Perhaps you should consider joining him," Grima wheezed, "You are just the sort of strong, pretty little toy that he would like." He completed it with a leer that had Sakura ready to pummel him into a smear on the wall.

A roar and a slam interrupted her, and her head spun fast enough to make her neck crack. Gandalf's staff was pointed directly outwards; Theoden was being pushed as if by an invisible wind into the back of his throne – no doubt the slam she'd heard had come from his smacking into it – and Gandalf was all but shouting out words in a language so ancient it reverberated around the walls with a life of its own. And then, just as suddenly, it was as if some malignant thing had been pushed out of him and sucked away. Theoden sagged in his chair, already looking as if life and youth had returned to him. Indeed, the white hair was thickening and gaining colour, the beard was shortening into neatness, and the wrinkles in his skin smoothed away to but a few laughter lines around his eyes and the corners of his mouth. At last, he looked up, eyes clear and sharp at last.

With a smirk, Sakura hauled Grima Wormtongue away from the wall to stand front and centre, and the King's gaze alighted on him with comprehension creeping into his eyes.

"Where is my sword?" He growled. It was placed reverently in his hand, and he took a moment to draw it from the sheath with the fondness of an old friend. And then he stood, tall and proud at last, with anger in his eyes and a long, sharp blade in his hand. Wormtongue trembled.

"If it was me," Sakura whispered sadistically into his ear, "I would break every bone in your body. Be thankful that all he has is a sword."

He looked like he was about to wet himself.

The citizens didn't know what to think when the doors to the King's hall were thrown open, and the King's advisor was roughly pulled out onto the terrace by a pink-haired girl and a dwarf. But behind them was their King, at last restored to his strength and glory, and a great cry of mixed joy and amazement went up, even as the King strode furiously toward the cowering Wormtongue with his sword raised high. Grima simpered from his position on the ground, babbling about his loyalty and begging shamelessly for his life, all the while crawling backwards on his hands – away from the sharp end of the King's sword.

Theoden growled out, "Worthless worm!" and swung his sword above his head. It whistled through the air in a downward arc, only to come to an abrupt halt, still vibrating slightly as it hung in the air. Sakura supposed she really shouldn't have been surprised to see Aragorn holding the King's arm firmly, preventing his strike.

"No my liege," he murmured quietly, "Enough blood has been shed on his account."

The King deflated slowly in the face of Aragorn's earnest gaze. The sword dropped to his side, and the ranger stepped away from him, exposing Wormtongue to him once again.

"Get out of my sight."

Wormtongue scrambled to his feet at once. He clutched his furs about him and apparently assured in his survival, he had the gall to sneer at the King.

"A wise choice indeed my liege," he spat; a derogatory repeat of his earlier words. Theoden's men took a half step forward, but the King stayed them with a single raised hand. Grima curled his lip mockingly, and moved to the stairs in preparation to leave. As he did so, Aragorn released the grip he held on the King's arm, and spoke gently. "In mercy, you did what was both the more just and noble deed," he assured him.

"That's right," came the voice of the pink-haired girl behind him. "_You_ did."

And Grima turned around just in time to be punched solidly in the face.


	35. Chapter 34: I'm A Ninja Not A King

**Hell-to-the-fucking **_**yeah**_** baby!**

The smug smirk that blossomed across her face was entirely at odds with the seemingly absent-minded way that Sakura dusted off her knuckles on her (by now rather tattered) shirt sleeve. Said absent effect was then ruined completely, as the smirk she wore met those same knuckles with a delicate kiss, which she then blew to the swearing Grima as his fall finally culminated in a collapsed cursing heap of ex-advisor at the bottom of the stairs. Behind her, the soldier who had taken her weapons had paled slightly, and seemed torn between standing between the table and her, in the interest of minimising damage, or simply throwing them all at her feet and hurrying out of potential range. He settled for idly inching away, and hoping that the job of bestowing the odd assortment back on her would be one given to someone else.

Meanwhile the Kunoichi had adopted a familiar pose, hands on hips and weight on one leg. It was one that her friends had come to recognise as defiance, trouble, or more usually both. **Damn, that felt good!** The voice in her head crowed triumphantly, and Sakura was feeling far too smug and cruelly amused to bother thinking about the detached sort of quality her thoughts had of late – after all, everyone talked to themselves at some point (or so she had previously reasoned) and since the world itself was almost certifiably mad anyway, 'normal' was not something Sakura particularly cared about anymore.

She watched with a kind of morbid curiosity as Wormtongue rolled himself over with a groan and flopped about pathetically for a bit before finally he stumbled to his feet. With his lip curling and his crooked teeth bared, blood could clearly be seen staining his lips and gums grotesquely, as it dribbled from his broken nose. The skin around his eyes was already blackening into ugly bruises. **Kinda matches his personality now,** Sakura thought nastily.

"Bitch!" He spat, spraying blood across the flagstones.

"That's me!" she gleefully called down the stairs, and then with a gesture made all the more menacing by her apparent excitement for the prospect, Sakura cracked her knuckles. Her grin didn't waver. "Now get lost. Worm."

He didn't hesitate. Her mocking laughter followed him as he fled the city.

A thousand eyes trailed him, only to flicker back to the stranger with the odd coloured hair, the very minute he set foot beyond the gates. Sakura's giggles subsided in the wake of the long silence that stretched out, and with a resigned look on her face she began an internal countdown.

**Five…Four…Three…**

"Sakura!"

**TwoOne.**

A thousand civilians of Rohan watched in awe as the strange, violent girl spun around to face the same dark-haired man who'd stopped their King from exacting a similar punishment, and adopt an expression that was exaggeratedly contrite.

"Yes, Ara-"

"Don't you 'Yes Aragorn' _me_!"

Bemused, the King and his men could only watch in silent amazement as the surely Ranger towered over the girl, who despite her earlier gleeful violence toward Grima, was now looking sufficiently chastised and a touch guilty.

"Did you not hear me say that enough blood had been spilled on his account? That mercy was the nobler deed? "

"I'm not a _King_ Aragorn, I'm a ninja. I'm not _supposed _to be noble." She argued sullenly, looking for all the world like a sulky teenager. "Anyway, if so much blood has been spilled on his account then nobody is going to argue that spilling a bit of his doesn't even the score. And besides which, he propositioned me. He deserved it. It was only one little punch."

Aragorn, who had opened his mouth for another reprimand, closed it with an abrupt click and an odd combination of surprise and anger in his eyes.

"Slimy git." She added grouchily.

It was at this point in which Gimli tossed in his two cents, with a dark look at the poor soldier who was inching his way further and further from the weapons table.

"Aye, and if I'da had my axe he would'na made it as far the stairs," he growled. To this, the dwarf received a fond smile from Sakura, which he returned warmly much to the relief of the soldier, who was seriously starting to think about just saying 'To hell with it' and giving the motley group their weapons back. It had to be better than being glared at. That pink haired girl was clearly mad, and her friends not much better. After a beats silence though, Aragorn just spun abruptly on his heel and strode through the double doors into Theoden's hall without another word, leaving Sakura with a blatantly bewildered expression.

Another awkward silence ensued – she was really starting to tire of those, honestly she wasn't _that_ odd – and Sakura risked a glance around. She was surrounded by bewildered soldiers, who still weren't sure as to whether they were supposed to attack her now (they hoped not); the King looked rather bemused, in a haughty and noble and Kingly way of course, and stood at the top of the stairs with his sword held loosely in his hand and his thick cloak billowing around him in the slight breeze. Gandalf looked amused, and had another of his damnably knowing smiles on his face. And Legolas appeared to be questioning Gimli as to the _exact_ nature of Grima's proposition to Sakura, and wasn't being nearly as subtle as he thought about it. Really, she thought, it was actually kind of cute, the way that they seemed to want to protect her. Annoying, but cute. Most of the time. **A bit like Naruto** she thought wistfully. She tried not to think about how long she had been here already. Naruto surely wouldn't have given up looking for her. He hadn't given up on Sasuke yet after all…

Sakura shook herself from her thoughts as she heard the King speak, and resolutely pushed away the nagging voice in her head that was asking her: **How long has it been since you last thought of Sasuke? **

She was shaken out of her thoughts by the sudden distressed note in the King's voice as he suddenly cried out behind her, asking for his son. She knew, the very instant that the words left his lips, that his son was dead. Experience had taught her what that look in the assembled in the soldiers eyes was, though they would not raise their eyes to meet the King's. But the blonde woman in the white dress, the one which Sakura guessed to be one of the King's kin, looked to him with such a stricken face that all the subtleties of the soldier's behaviour didn't matter. He knew, as well as she did, what grief looked like. Sakura felt pity stir in her gut for the King, as he gently shrugged off his kinswoman and marched away in sudden stony silence. His departure left an unsure crowd on the terrace. The soldiers milled about awkwardly until the Captain gave a gruff order to return to their posts, which they set to eagerly. He clapped a hand on the blonde ladies shoulder as he passed her, a brief acknowledgement of shared greif and compassion, nodded respectfully to Sakura, and moved away. Their weapons were left abandoned on the table beside the doors.

"May I?" Sakura found herself asking mildly, inserting a rare gentleness into her voice in the face of the woman's loss. She started and looked about momentarily as if collecting herself, before she suddenly seemed to reign herself in and regain her composure. Sakura gestured helpfully to the weapons table.

"Ah, of course." She cleared her throat and addressed them more regally, "As you have proven yourselves allies of Rohan, I, the Lady Eowyn, Sheildmaiden of Rohan, return to you your arms, on behalf of my Uncle, Theoden King."

It was a bit flamboyant, Sakura was inclined to think, and overly formal when one had trained under a ruler who would be more likely to answer such a question with "Have at it. Hell, snatch a couple for me too will ya'? And bring me some sake while you're up." But at least all that long winded titling had proven her right about her relationship with the King – he was her Uncle, she his niece – and as she realised with a sinking stomach the habit here of naming children similarly within a family, she was suddenly struck with the thought that Eowyn bore resemblance to more than just the King.

**Now is probably not a good time to bring up the fact that you punched her brother in the face. Or cousin. Or whatever. **She told herself, with an internal wince. Eowyn remained blissfully unaware, however, and Sakura busied herself with scooping her various sharp, pointy, poisoned and generally destructive items back into her weapons pouch and hip pack while the Lady of Rohan mustered her hospitality and began offering the dwarf, elf and girl (for Gandalf had disappeared after the King) both food and drink, and a warm bed. It was role she fell into with ease, as practiced as Sakura's shuriken throws, and the Kunoichi found herself analysing the quality of her speech. She had to commend her – it didn't sound totally forced – though there was strain there still. Even so, they would take hospitality where they could get it. Legolas instantly responded with all the charm and manners of a true Elfin Prince, graciously and immediately accepting sustenance on behalf of his fellow travellers.

"Of course, you must all be hungry. And if there is anything else you need?"

"A bath." Sakura's response was out almost before Eowyn finished speaking. "I would give anything for a bath and change of clothes right now."

"What?" Said the dwarf. "But you haven't eaten in days! Surely that is the more important?"

Sakura looked at him dully, taking in the dirty, tatty look about him that she undoubtedly shared. She was fairly certain that she smelled far from pleasant, now that the spectacle was over and people were in a position to notice such things, and her hair was so greasy she swore she could fry tempura in it. She had no desire to sit and eat in company, much less in a King's hall, in such a state. But trying to explain this to a male of any species seemed like too much hard work at this point and Sakura instead settled for levelling a pleading look at Eowyn, with whom she shared a look of exasperated understanding.

"I'll have one drawn up for you."

"_Thank you."_


	36. Chapter 35: Every Girl Needs A Good Bath

_**Short Author note: Thanks to everyone for their patience with the long waits between updates, I seem to have finally found my inspiration again. Just a short filler chapter this time since we are going to have a lot of full-on chapters soon! And a little teaser for those who want it: Someone from home will be showing up somewhere in the not-so-distant future. Any guesses who?**_

_~ StartOfStory StartOfStory StartOfStory StartOfStory StartOfStory StartOfStory~_

**Oh dear sweet scented bath-water, never again will I take you for granted.** Sakura sighed contently as she sank herself up to her chin, idly wishing she had asked Kakashi to let her sign his dog-summoning contract, if only for the purpose of summoning Pakkun to borrow his shampoo. And to think! She had once hated the idea of sharing the same shampoo with a dog. The soap they had here did its job well enough, and she was grateful for it, but _damn_ what she wouldn't give for her Mint and Vanilla shampoo right now. Flower-petals weren't a bad alternative though, she thought as she twirled her finger in the water, sending the floating petals into a cheerful swirly pattern. Her fingertips were undeniably wrinkly, her body was delightfully mud-free, her hair was _clean_ and Sakura was, for once, a very happy camper indeed.

A discrete knock sounded on the door, not loud, but enough to snap Sakura back to attention and out of her thoughts. Assuming it to be another ladies maid here to attend her – **Can't fault the service in Middle Earth**, she thought happily – the pink haired nin took a moment to flip herself over in the tub so as to be facing the door on her stomach (and to make sure her bottom was sufficiently covered with petals) and called a quick "Come in!"

It was not some nameless woman that entered though, but instead Eowyn. She entered with a half-embarrassed smile, and kept her gaze politely on Sakura's face, unfazed by her nudity. Sakura guessed that having Ladies Maid's attend to you your whole life probably sucked any potential embarrassment out of you completely.

**Well, if she's seen me naked already I suppose I'll just **_**have**_** to be friends,** Sakura thought in amusement.

"Lady Eowyn." She greeted politely.

"Lady Sakura."

**I love it when they call me that.**

'So, what are you doing in the bathroom with me?' sounded a bit too blunt even for Sakura's tastes, and seeing as this may be her only chance at an honest-to-goodness _female_ friend she'd be damned if she messed it up now. Having nobody but men to talk to was exhausting. She needed someone who understood the need for baths and clean hair. With that in mind she opened her mouth with a carefully constructed query, guaranteed to least offend, when Eowyn beat her to the punch.

"I hope you will forgive my intrusion," she said mildly, perching herself on a large wicker basket intended for clothes, "but I had been hoping to talk to you. You and I seem rather alike, you see." She smiled a hopeful smile.

"I was thinking the same thing!" Sakura answered cheerfully. "All male company gets a little old doesn't it?"

The sympathetic wince she got in response was a clear answer. "Indeed. Sometimes one simply needs another who understands the importance of scented bath-water."

**Geez, mind reader or what?** Outwardly Sakura simply grinned.

"Yeah, thanks for this by the way."

"I am glad that you are enjoying it." Eowyn eyed her clothes with a poorly disguised grimace. "It seems you have had a hard journey thus far," she said diplomatically.

"In other words, I looked terrible," Sakura translated with a laugh, entirely unoffended. Gods it was so easy to talk to Eowyn that it was almost like talking to Ino, minus the name-calling and preening. She made a face at the ragtag pile on the floor. "I don't suppose I could borrow something to wear, could I?" Sakura made sure to accompany this with the most pleading, puppy-dog look she could possibly muster. Eowyn gave her a knowing look. One that said without words 'I bet you use that shamelessly on the men, don't you?'

The wicked grin she changed it to was a loud and clear 'Yes'. Eowyn sniggered in a most unladylike fashion. The she bent forward conspiratorially.

"It would seem to me, Lady Sakura, from your garb," a nod at the discarded pile, "that a dress would be the lesser appreciated of what I can offer."

Sakura sent her an apologetic smile in response, coupled with an admiring glance at the dress Eowyn wore.

"It is not that your dresses are not beautiful, Lady Eowyn, but merely that such a dress where I come from is rarely worn by people of my…profession."

"Oh?"

"Yes, I am a mercenary, of a sort, you see. And I frequently find myself in combat. I prefer trousers."

"They _are_ a lot easier to move in aren't they?" Eowyn asked innocently, and then with a wink she lifted the hem of her skirt just enough to reveal the leather riding boots and fitted leggings beneath. Sakura raised an eyebrow at the handle of a dagger peeking out from the top of one boot.

"The women of Rohan learned a long time ago that those without swords can still die upon them." She answered with a shrug, and dropped her skirts. Sakura reached over the edge of the tub to pull one of her own, by now very worn, boots over to her. Without taking her eyes off Eowyn, she slipped her hand inside and slid out the silver dagger. **Can anyone say 'Snap'?**

"Eowyn," she said with a wicked smirk, "I do believe we will make fabulous friends."

_~ ~_

When Eowyn and Sakura entered the dining hall arm in arm, Theoden knew instantly that there would be trouble. In fact, judging by the avid way in which they were currently discussing what _else_ they should have done to Grima-the-slimy-git (his new, full title, ala Sakura), and from what he had seen of Sakura's nature thus far, he rather thought that his niece had found her bosom companion. He really rather pitied any man that crossed those two.

"That bastard was salivating all over you for_ how long_?" They heard as the women neared; Sakura's voice aghast. Eowyn nodded.

"He would have had me for a prize, after his work for his crooked master was done." She said indignantly.

The men in the room winced as Sakura's fierce response was hissed, while the rather pleased look on Eowyn's face - as Sakura described exactly what she would rip off and where she would put it, should she see him again – gave them considerable pause for thought. Yes, Theoden thought, I even almost pity Grima. At length, the two appeared to realise that their conversation had reached the point of being overheard and simultaneously dropped into composed and innocent expressions.

While Eowyn gently kissed her Uncle's cheek by way of greeting, Sakura bobbed a bow to the King and promptly plopped herself down between Legolas and Aragorn.

"Hey," she whispered happily to the Ranger, "We match!"

And indeed they did, Aragorn thought amusedly as he took in her new attire. She had been provided with a fitted jerkin and gauntlets in brown leather; on her feet were new brown leather riding boots and calf-height chaps, while her hands bore the gloves that riders liked to wear to protect the fingers and increase the grip on the reins. She had foregone her cloak inside, though no doubt she had it stashed away somewhere. He still couldn't fathom quite how Sakura managed to ruin her clothes so easily, and so frequently, when most of the rest of the fellowship still wore the same few changes of clothes they had set out with (now thankfully washed). Then again she did have a bad habit of throwing herself into the thick of things.

"Today is a day of celebration," Theoden announced, silencing the table as he rose, "And of loss. Tonight we shall feast. For now though, may our luncheon be absent of unhappy thoughts or...unpleasant realisations, and let us enjoy our freedom once more."

Sakura raised her goblet in the same way that everyone else did, unfamiliar with the custom of 'toasting', but willing to follow along. They drank quietly. Despite the King's words Sakura could see the loss return to her friends eyes, and frowned. She had done such a good job of distracting her too. Naruto was better at comforting people, she thought a little sadly. Somehow that boy made everything brighter. Still, Sakura had been friends with Ino for long enough to know the simplest of gestures could help a girl who was hurting (she didn't want to dwell on why a girl might be hurting) and since Eowyn was a little like Ino (albeit quieter)…Silently, she reached out to Eowyn under the table and gently linked their fingers with a soft squeeze.

"Pass me the potatoes Eowyn?" She asked casually.

The blonde shot her a grateful look, and passed the potatoes. And the men at the table were left with the odd feeling that they had just missed something.


	37. Chapter 36: Why I Like Cats

The crows flew past like an angry, squawking whirlwind. Sakura growled under her breath as they whizzed overhead, batting her hair – now so long she'd had to braid it to keep it tame – about wildly in the wind they created. Dust swirled up into the air in a quick burst, and after a beat a crow rose into the air from where it had been flying just a tad too low. The detestable sound of the birds, accompanied by the muffled shouting from behind the thick doors of the hall, was enough to give her a headache.

She'd ducked out early on, having no interest in sitting about listening to neither Gandalf's morbid warnings of Sarumon's retaliation, nor to Aragorn and the King getting steadily louder and more vehement in their argument of what was to be done about it. From what she had gathered, the King wanted to move the whole city to some sort of Keep where they would supposedly be safe, which Aragorn seemed to think was a tremendously bad idea. Having Sarumon's spies fluttering about over the city wasn't helping tempers any either, and Sakura for one had had enough of sitting around not doing anything. It was with a resolute look that she got to her feet.

"What are you planning Lass?"

She almost, _almost_, jumped when the dwarf appeared next to her. Either he was getting sneakier or she was getting rusty. She stored that thought away for perusal at a later time, and tilted her head toward him in greeting.

"Thought I might even the odds a bit," she said darkly, with a nod toward the mass of black still flying about.

Gimli looked doubtful. "How are you planning that then?"

The smile she gave him was almost amused.

"You know Gimli my friend, sometimes I think you forget that I'm a ninja."

He didn't have time to reply before she darted off.

Sakura hopped from rooftop to rooftop, revelling in the familiar whoosh of wind past her ears. Her braid flapped behind her, but she found the leather vest and boots that Eowyn had provided immensely comfortable and surprisingly easy to move in. Yes, she thought, this is where ninja's belong. Up high. She glanced up to find that the birds were changing course, still circling over the city but it was a moving circle; it was moving toward the only oddity in the city – in other words – her. Perfect. She cleared the gates in a single easy leap and landed with a soft thump and a minor crack as the ground shifted under her. She spared a second to check that the crowd of birds were still focussed on her, and then took off running again.

**You want to know about me do you Sarumon? Alrighty then.**

She reached an open field. The birds swerved, momentarily thrown off course and into disarray, when Sakura skidded to a halt and threw a punch into the earth. Dirt and dust was thrown up like a fountain, and for a second it hung in the air. And just as fast, the dust cloud dropped like a stone to reveal three Sakura's where one Sakura had previously stood. The three Sakura's began to run, round and round in a wide circle, adding more and more chakra to each step, running faster, kicking up more and more dust with each consecutive arc.

The birds screeched and tumbled about, formation forgotten in favour of a baser instinct; the crows found themselves surrounded by a wall of dust and dirt, and panicked. The birds higher up attempted to fly toward the open sky directly above, but two columns of grit streaked through the wall and two Sakura's emerged from them mid-leap. A tag, detonated in the air, was enough to force the flock back down. And then the tags were everywhere, spinning in the miniature dirt-tornado and exploding like fireworks on Guy Fawks. Sakura's clones poofed out of existence as the dust began to settle and the air took on a rather sudden scent of barbequed chicken.

**And **_**that's**_** why **_**I**_** didn't **_**need**_** to cheat on the first part of the chuunin exam, **she thought with a satisfied smirk. **Cha.**

She was unpleasantly wrenched out of such happy-thoughts by a meek squawk. A single bird was haphazardly winging its way away. **Goddamit. Why is there always one? **She grunted and readied a kunai, only to watch as a sleek arrow sailed overhead and neatly struck Sarumon's last spy down. The soft muzzle of Legolas' horse nudged her shoulder, and she patted it absent-mindedly as she stowed her weapon. Then she took the offered hand and let the elf swing her up behind him, leaving the area with a last appraising glance to make sure there were no more crows alive.

"The King has made his wishes clear. We are to ride to Helm's Deep. Gandalf will not be accompanying us, he rides to intercept the young Lord Eomer and his men, and bring them to our aid."

"Well, now is the time to do it," she mused in response, with a glance over her shoulder to the fallen spies of Sarumon. "Has Gandalf left yet?"

"I believe so. Once he realised what you were doing he sent me to you immediately." Legolas peeked over his shoulder at her with a cheeky grin, "He asked me to commend you on a most ingenious intervention."

"What can I say," she said lightly, "I'm a genius."

Sakura twisted her torso around to flip the flap of her hip-pouch up, and took a cursory glance at the contents - carefully cupping her hand to shield them from been blown away as she did so. She frowned unhappily when she saw how many of her exploding tags she had used up – there were just three left. **No more Sakura-fubuki-no-jutsu's for a while then.** She grimaced a little, and made a mental note to track down some paper. Legolas, having been watching her out of the corner of his eye, waited for her face forward again and wrap her arms around his middle, before he gently urged Erod into a gallop back towards the city. The soldiers had already begun preparing the city for evacuation.

They slowed to a trot approaching the gates, and as they neared Theoden's hall it was a struggle to get through the crowd, even atop the horse. Everywhere, civilians were tugging small carts or pushing wheelbarrows, carrying bags and small children; all the while Soldiers shouted out instructions and patrolled in two lines either side of the long chain of citizens.

Aragorn stood out on the terrace, packing up Hasalof's saddle bags with a tense set to his shoulders. Gimli was waiting for them, stood next to a thickset wooden box which was clearly intended to help him mount – despite his best efforts to appear that he was standing next to it by chance only. Legolas halted his steed by it, and Sakura obligingly hopped down so Gimli could take her place.

"Convenient," she observed innocently, "Someone leaving a box here." The dwarf scowled at her. She laughed, and moved over to Aragorn.

"I saw your trick with the birds," he murmured gratuitously, "You have bought us some time." He frowned as looked toward what Sakura presumed was the direction they were headed. "But I fear even that will not be enough." He looked grave.

"Where is it that we are going? I thought it was supposed to be a safe place."

"It has thick walls and deep caverns, to be sure. But if they trap themselves there they will have no where to go."

"A double-edged sword?" She frowned.

"I fear so."

They stood in silence for a moment, watching as the Rohirrim rounded up the stragglers and the civilians ambled into some sort of formation, ready to set off. She didn't like it. There were children down there, and they were going to be out in the open regardless of how safe or not-safe their final location was – She tightened her new riding gloves without thinking. Somehow her 'ninja-senses' were telling her they were in for a rough trip. Even if she _had_ slowed down Sarumon's little aerial spy-system, he was sure to have other spies, other means of following them or predicting where they were – they were moving a whole city for goodness' sake! No wonder Aragorn was already wound up.

"Where is Naruto when you need him?" she muttered under her breath.

Then the order was called to move out, and Aragorn swung himself up into the saddle. He patted Hasalof's rump in invitation. Aragorn watched the debate play out on her face, and made the decision for her. He reached down and tugged her gently toward him by the wrist.

"Save your strength Sakura, we will need it before long. At the very least ride with me 'til you have recovered what you lost with that little stunt you just pulled."

She fancied she saw a brief flash of jealously run across Eowyn's face when she hopped up behind him – **Surely not? **– but the other woman disappeared into the crowd before she could be certain. Sakura grimaced as she wrapped her arms around Aragorn's torso, all the while thinking that if it was what she thought it was, Eowyn had _terrible_ timing.

The trip was uneventful to the point of being boring, Sakura began to think. Aside from the occasional bratty kid that tried to pull her hair, and Gimli's stories about Dwarven women and their beards, there was nothing but grass, rocks and the occasional tree to think about. She and Legolas had long since abandoned the horses in favour of running ahead, and doing a little discreet scouting. She had to hand it to the elf – he would make a pretty damn good ninja with feet that light and senses that keen. Of course, there were the two cavalry scouts as well, young (rather thick) men that charged ahead on their horses in a completely non-discreet manner, and ignored Sakura every time she hissed at them to "be a little less fucking obvious, idiots". (This was usually accompanied by a string of swearwords in her own language, and a few in elvish, which she picked up from Legolas.)

She groaned as they charged ahead once more, disappearing out of sight over a rocky hill. They were currently winding through a mess of rocky outcrops, where the ground alternated between flats and dips, and to the right of the procession lay a series of steep cliffs. There was a river at the bottom, judging by the muffled roar of moving water in the background and the vague scent of dampness in the air. There was a faint whistle, and what sounded like a thump, and elf and girl simultaneously perked up. Sakura didn't need to channel chakra to her ears in order to hear the pained cry of the second scout as he was struck down. In an instant they flew over the outcrop, only to come face to face with two dead scouts, two dead horses, and several snarling drooling dog-like beasts.

Legolas unleashed a barrage of arrows, before Sakura shoved him backwards with a sharp command to warn the others. He heeded her without question. She could vaguely hear a shout being taken up over the ridge, but the growling noises and sneering Orcs in front of her were occupying her thoughts rather more at this point in time. Sakura reached for her kunai pouch, slit the throat of the first beast to jump at her, and wordlessly added this moment to her mental "Why-I-Like-_Cats_" list.

And then all hell broke loose.


	38. Chapter 37: Battle of The Beasts

Sakura ducked as one of the Warg's swiped at her with a heavy, clawed paw, and wheezed as it's orc-rider caught her in the side with some sort of mallet-like weapon. The fight had quickly disintegrated into an all out mêlée. The 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' were in such close proximity that she couldn't use an exploding tag without taking out half her own side, even if she had enough left to use. The same applied to her super-strength, especially since they were fighting on top of a cliff. That only left close-combat taijutsu and kunai. At least, she grunted as she smashed a fist into the beast's flank, she could still lace her punches with chakra. She _felt_ its huge ribs crack under her knuckles and it toppled over onto its back, crushing the cursing orc underneath it.

Sakura had no time to appreciate the victory, though, because two more were already bearing down on her with slavering jaws and Orcs with big pointy weapons on top of them. She dropped and rolled under one of the Wargs, just as it leapt forwards, and bounced back onto her feet behind it with a kunai in each hand. A flick of the wrist caught the Orc in the back of the head, killing it instantly, but the second clipped the metal buckles on the Warg-riders saddle and deflected, leaving a severely pissed off and very _alive_ giant wolfish beast in front of her – dead orc still hanging from the straps. She heard the growl behind her and ducked on instinct. The orc-blade whistled as it passed over her head, but the warm breath on the back of her head was more worrying. She managed to lunge between the first Warg's legs again just in time to avoid those jaws snapping shut. Sakura scrambled in the dirt to get back to her feet, but a heavy paw came down on her back and knocked the wind out of her. She could hear the Orc cackling over the growls of the two Warg's. She grimaced as she felt the claws dig into her shoulder and a big blob of warm drool hit the back of her head. Sakura wriggled desperately, trying with all her might to get her hands out from under her so that she could do something. Anything.

A low 'whoosh' sounded, and the weight on her was suddenly gone; the beast staggered and collapsed with a cry, an arrow firmly stuck in its neck. She hurriedly formed the signs for a substitution jutsu and got the hell out of there. The frustrated cry of the remaining Warg and Rider as their prey promptly turned into a log was music to her ears. Sakura finished them off with a few fast shuriken, though she had no time to see if they hit. She was already physically holding the jaws of another one apart, trying to keep it from eating her. It's breath was rank, and the whole beast smelled like a mix of rotting meat and wet dog. With a flicker of green chakra making her wrists glow, Sakura summoned her 'super-strength' and forcefully moved the animals jaws apart. There was a loud sudden CRACK. The Warg dropped to the floor with its broken jaw flapping like the dinosaur in King Kong.

All around her the Warg-riders and the Rohirrim were weaving in and out of each other, a spear here, a blade there; arrows flew and cries of pain rent the air. She comforted herself that those cries were more orc than human. It was a mess. She couldn't see her friends; they were lost in the sea of beasts. The very air smelled of blood, sweat and fur.

Sakura vaulted backwards as one of the horsemen swung past, fighting to get the panicked horse under control, while an orc and its steed snapped at his heels. She used her momentum to spin on the heel of her hand and snapped her leg up under the Warg's jaw, sending it flying sideways into one of its own. The two beasts collapsed in a tangled heap, and began fighting with one another as they wrestled to get up. The Orc though, had jumped off just as she had kicked, and aside from a few bruises from his quick drop-and-roll, he was unharmed. This was unfortunate, as said unharmed orc was now quite enthusiastically swinging his sword at her head. She tried to duck, and his boot came up to meet her ribs. She groaned painfully, dropping to one knee for just a moment, but it was long enough for the orc to bring down another swing. A few severed pink hairs floated to the ground. The orc gurgled unintelligibly as blood bubbled up in his mouth – Sakura had thrown her entire weight forwards to avoid the blow, and by extension thrown her whole weight onto the kunai she'd embedded in his stomach. He crumpled.

She barely had time to wipe the blood off her face before she was attacked again. Two arrows swooshed by her ears and took out two of the orcs surrounding her, leaving just one for her to dispatch with a quick chakra-fuelled kick. She recognised Legolas' elfin arrows – a fast search saw him firing from atop a rocky outcrop, taking down orcs left, right and centre. His lips were moving - as if he was counting under his breath. Or swearing. She had a sneaking suspicion it was both. She saluted him smartly in recognition, but didn't wait for him to return it. She dived back into the fray.

It was pure luck that she saw Aragorn when she did. Had she been anywhere else at that exact moment she would never had known what happened, such was the writhing changing mass of bodies on the battleground. She had been grabbed by an orc on foot – his sharp hooked nails dug into her shoulder – and on reflex she grabbed his forearm and pulled him over her bodily. He thudded into the ground, arm almost certainly dislocated, when the angry Kunoichi kicked herself into a spin and swung the loathsome creature around with her. He cried out as his arm jerked violently out of the socket for the second time. But halfway through her turn she lost all thought of this particular adversary. Aragorn was being dragged through the dirt by a wayward Warg –his hand was caught on the straps of its saddle somehow – and the sight of the panicked animal running full pelt toward the cliff-edge made her blood freeze. Without preamble she dropped the orc she held. Still mid-spin, he continued his path and flew into the ground some distance away, though Sakura didn't look to see where he'd landed. Her entire focus was tunnelled on the struggling ranger and diminishing distance between him and the cliff.

Sakura had no idea if she shouted his name aloud or not – her voice would have been lost in the battle either way. All she knew was that the gap between them was too wide, and she was running out of time. A frustrated yell was the only thing to mark the instant her feet left the ground. A sizzle of chakra glowed around her boots as Sakura leapt into the air and began running directly over the battle – stepping from head to head - faster than any elf could hope to be. Her chakra _burned_ the scalps of the orcs she stood on, but she neither noticed nor cared. She needed to be faster. Her lungs burned as she pushed chakra through her body, willing herself with all her might to be closer, closer, _closer_. Her body flickered, and suddenly she was struck with the feeling that her major organs had just attempted an escape through her skull. And then she was there. Her breath caught as her brain tried to process the simultaneous shock of having flash-stepped for the first time, and the shock of suddenly, finally being in reach of Aragorn. She desperately tried to grab onto him; he flung out his hand to her. Their fingertips brushed. The Warg toppled over the edge, and Sakura's eyes widened frantically as she watched him fall away from her. This time she knew she screamed.

"Aragorn!"

She threw herself over without so much as a pause.

Sakura squeezed her arms tight against her sides, free-falling with her head down and her toes pointed – anything to make her fall faster. Her eyes watered as the wind rushed past. Her teeth ached, she was gritting them so tightly. The river was looming closer, and its vicious roar filled her ears.

He was tumbling head over end with the beast, unable to get away from it. Aragorn fought with the thing, wriggling around in the air as best he could, trying to reach the handle of the dagger. The rip of his sleeve was a blessing and a curse. With that sound, the fabric tore away from the dagger embedded in the Warg's flank and the wind pulled him away. For a heart stopping moment, he had the strangest feeling of flying. Then two dainty arms caught him tightly against a small slim body, and he felt them being flipped over as Sakura tried desperately to catch hold on the cliff-face with her chakra dancing along her fingers. To no avail. The rock broke away under the force of their fall, leaving them skidding down the cliff face. Sakura cried out as the friction tore away the pads of her gloves and burned her fingers, and the two of them tumbled backwards away from the cliff and into the river's icy grasp.

The water tossed them about like ragdolls, burned their lungs and their skin with its frigid temperature. Sakura's body had never felt so heavy, nor her movements so out of her control. She flailed about and for a brief second made contact with Aragorns arm. It was enough for her to catch his wrist in a death-grip. But the water was moving too fast for her to make any headway – it was all she could do to stay afloat, let alone swim. She couldn't even tell if he was still conscious or not. She choked as more and more water sloshed unbidden into her mouth. The river was little more than rapids and rocks here, and all too often she found herself smashed against the boulders. Her body ached. Her vision swam with black spots, her head felt disturbingly light, and before she could summon enough chakra to banish it she fainted dead away.

She was not to wake for some time, but when she did, it was to a fading sun on a rocky shore, and the oddest scent – the smell of her favourite shampoo - hanging around her…


	39. Chapter 38: Dogs, Frogs and Decisions

**_Author note: I rewrote this chapter so many times I lost count...A little heavier than normal I suspect. But free hypothetical cookies to everyone who guessed right!_**

The shoal snagged her clothes as Sakura shifted subconsciously, on the verge of awaking, still in that strange halfway state between unconscious and awareness when sounds register in your brain, but you are still too asleep to properly make sense of them. On some level, Sakura was aware of the rough rocks and shell under her, and that she was laid uncomfortably on her stomach. The roar of fast moving water pounded dully against her ears. The heady scent of Mint and Vanilla shampoo knocked against her groggy head, expounding her headache even more than the noise, and she groaned in discomfort as her brain slowly kicked into gear.

Her forehead scrunched up and her mouth twisted; the true extent of her discomfort finally registering. Her face was turned slightly to the side, breathing laboured from lying on her stomach. One arm was trapped underneath her, blood flow cut off by her weight pressing down on it. Her breasts ached from being squashed against the ground for so long, and her back felt like someone had taken to it with a hammer. The toe of one boot and the entirety of the other still dangled in the river, and her wet leggings clung tightly to her skin in very unpleasant way. Her hands felt like they'd been run across a cheese grater, but she couldn't quite summon enough concentration to heal them.

And to top it all off, was the rather disconcerting feeling that a very small, and very insistent Warg was batting her repeatedly and firmly on the ear.

"Gerroff," she muttered, barely legibly as she batted her free arm in the vague direction of her head. The batting obligingly stopped, leaving her free to roll over onto her back with a distressed moan. She felt like she'd been tossed into a blender and set to 'high'. The feeling was not helped in the slightest by the small body which jumped heavily onto her stomach. She choked as the air flew out of her, eyes snapping open and body hurtling into a semi-upright position. It turned out be a good thing, because she no longer had any air to scream with when her eyes opened to find a wrinkled nose and two droopy eyes inches from her nose.

There followed a long stretch of silence in which Sakura performed an Oscar-winning impersonation of a fish. And a dead fish at that. Her eyes bulged. Her mouth hung open. She was even turning slightly blue.

The pug blinked, and took that as his cue to hop off her stomach and let her breathe. Which she did – in sudden rapid pants that verged on hysterical.

"Pa-Pakkun?" she managed to gasp out, looking for all the world like the eyes were about to fall out of her head.

"Yo."

She stared at him. He idly scratched his ear.

"_That's it?"_ Sakura screeched suddenly, falling back into the language of her homeland. _"That's all you have to say?"_

**Definitely bordering on hysterical.**

Pakkun looked at her with an utterly bored expression, and sat back on his haunches as if it was perfectly natural for him to be on a beach by a river in Middle Earth. He wriggled his nose at her.

"_You smell weird." _He told her, blandly.

Her jaw dropped. For a moment she fought between the urge to strangle him, and strangely, the urge to bury her face in his fur and cry with the sheer, utter relief of seeing him. Eventually Sakura simply sagged.

"_They don't have our shampoo here Pakkun," _she said, somewhat weakly.

She had never seen such a look of horror on a dog's face.

"_What? What kind of heathen place have you gotten yourself into, Sakura-chan?" _He asked, appalled. He shuffled forward to pat her hand with a paw consolingly. _"Never you worry, we'll get you back to Konoha and smelling right in no time. Come on, let's get the frog."_

He made to bound away, only to find himself caught in the air around his middle. Pakkun's legs paddled a little in the air, before he grumpily flopped and allowed Sakura to hold him. He twisted his head around to send her an unhappy look over his shoulder. She was looking cross and confused again.

"_Wait a minute! You just turn up out of nowhere and expect to hop off just like that? Dammit Pakkun, explain yourself would you? And __what__ bloody frog?"_ Sakura directed a furious, frustrated stare at the struggling pug in her hold – she realised belatedly that she'd been tightening her grip steadily with each agitated question. She dropped him reluctantly back onto the ground.

"_Geez, Sakura-chan,"_ he grumbled, rubbing his belly with a wince. He scowled. _"You don't expect to sit on __my __back, do you?"_

"_What?"_

"_The frog," _he explained crossly, as if it should have been obvious. _"How else do you expect to get back?"_

Seeing the blank and increasingly irritated look on Sakura's face, Pakkun let loose a heavy sigh; it was obvious that he was going to need to do a lot more explaining than he expected to. Recognising the warning signs of a temper-tantrum, he made a jump for her stomach again, forcing her to plop back onto her ass and knocking the wind out of her again. He then cut off her stream of expletives with a brave and well-placed paw. In fact, the look on his face at the moment reminded Sakura almost painfully of Kakashi in full lecture mode; she obediently shut up, though she did attempt a cross-eyed glare at the pug.

"_Alright," _Pakkun told her sternly_, "I'm only explaining this once so listen up."_

_Kakashi and Naruto stood in the middle of the pock-marked and well-used Team 7 training grounds. What little that was visible of Kakashi's face reflected the same grim determination on Naruto's. This was it – the last option. Sasuke had disappeared again, and they were almost certain now that it hadn't been his jutsu that had hit Sakura. The chakra trails were wrong, or so Pakkun said. It didn't smell like it should. They had read every damn scroll in the village, or so it felt. This was their last chance. A long shot – but their only shot._

_They had planned it out carefully, argued back and forwards over and over, but they were ready. A sharp nod from Kakashi and Naruto launched into the string of hand signs for his summoning jutsu. Only the flicker of movement in the corner of his eye told him Kakashi was doing the same. Sudden, violent bursts of smoke filled the area, causing Naruto to choke slightly, and he squinted as his eyes began to water. He swiped at the smoke impatiently, batting it away to reveal seven assorted dogs – all wearing Kakashi's signature smiley face – and seven large and warty toads in varying shades of putrid orange and yellow. They knew something was very wrong when Naruto didn't speak, or greet them in the usual cheerful way. He merely gestured to Kakashi, who began briefing them in clipped short sentences._

_It was simple. One dog, one frog per team. Kakashi would use his Mangekou Sharingan on each team in turn. The idea was that they'd be sent to another dimension, and that once there the dog in the team would try to find the scent of the missing Sakura. Find her, put her on the toad, poof yourselves back. Simple. Being summons, they were somewhat used to travelling between dimensions, at least between this one and their own. Travelling to and from somewhere completely unknown was a dangerous game though, and not to be taken lightly. They didn't even know how many dimensions there were. And if they didn't find anything within three weeks of looking, well, no one would blame them for returning empty handed. The toads nodded grimly, while the dogs sat in silence – Kakashi had already talked to them earlier. _

_The atmosphere was charged with a thick kind of tension, as the copy-nin slid his headband up away from his eye. The red pupil glowed eerily in the deepening dusk, and one by one the pairs swirled away into an unfathomable blackness. Naruto and Kakashi were left alone, quiet and dismal, with a long wait ahead of them._

"_I'm waiting for you Sakura-chan," Naruto told the wind. Kakashi said nothing._

Sakura stared at the pug in her lap, mind racing a mile a minute. He was here to take her home. Naruto and Kakashi had been looking for her, and found a way to bring her home. She had the terrible feeling that she should feel considerably more elated, but the brief thrill that Pakkun's story had brought her was dampened by the fact that her friends in Middle Earth were closer to war than ever. They'd been attacked for goodness sake! And she still didn't know where Aragorn was.

"_Pakkun,"_ she whispered at last, remorse colouring her words, _"I can't leave yet."_

"_What do you mean you can't leave?"_ he cried out, shocked and angry, _"What's keeping you here? Don't you know how much they miss you? Don't you want to go home?"_

"_Of course I do!" _She shouted, and was alarmed to feel her eyes prickle, _"But I'm __needed__ here Pakkun! My friends here, they're about to go to __War__! They might __die__ without me Pakkun, don't you understand? How can I leave them now?"_

She was left panting a little in the wake of her emotional turmoil, chest heaving and eyes gleaming with a mix of frustration and sorrow. **Why, oh why did this have to happen **_**now**_**? **Pakkun held her gaze, sternly.

"_And what about Naruto and Kakashi?"_

"_They'll understand,"_ she whispered desperately, _"I know they will. Naruto would never forgive me if he found out I had walked away from this. He'll understand."_

Pakkun regarded her with a completely closed-off expression, and scratched his ear thoughtfully. _"They won't like it." _He warned her. She let out a sharp, bitter laugh, and smiled a watery smile that didn't look happy in the slightest.

"_I know," _she repeated quietly,_"But they'll understand." _

Pakkun sighed heavily. _"I ain't telling them." _Then he scowled at her and told her in a gruff voice that brooked no argument. _"You'll write them a note or something, and send it back with the frog. I'm staying with you for the time being."_

For a moment she considered arguing, being that she was getting bossed around by a dog, but quickly decided against it. Instead she rummaged hurriedly through her pack in search of something paper, or at the very least dry. She emerged with her last three exploding tags, now so waterlogged as to be utterly useless. She bit her lip, looking at them. With a nod of decision, Sakura peeled them away from the each other – for they had gotten stuck together in their wet state – and laid them on a nearby rock to dry out a little in the sun. By some strange stroke of luck she unearthed a semi-usable pen from the bottom of her hip pouch and ran it up and down her hand a few times to get the remaining ink flowing. It was a little watery, but serviceable. Pakkun filled in the time by fetching the frog from whatever pool upstream that he'd left it in, and by the time they returned Sakura was bent over the rock and trying to cramp as long a letter as she could onto the back of two exploding tags – which are not known for their size. The third she tucked away in her weapons case, lest by some lucky chance she was able to copy it.

The toad patted her on the back, an old, non-judgemental frog, and carefully tucked the makeshift letter into the obi it wore. A smart salute and a puff of smoke, and it was gone. Sakura stood resolutely, fixing her clothes and hair with a kind of ruthlessly forced casualty, while Pakkun looked on in knowing silence. She straightened the short tunic she wore under her jerkin, tightened her gauntlets, and re-plaited her hair into a stern, tight braid. Then, with a resolute lift of her chin, she turned to the dog.

"_Let's go."_


	40. Chapter 39: The Trials of Talking Dogs

Sakura's fingertips dug into the rock ledge, while her body hung stomach-against the rough, near vertical rock face. She tilted her head carefully, and felt the telltale tingle of Pakkun's chakra tickling her scalp as he anchored himself more firmly to her head. His little paws pressed more firmly to her temples, as if holding on, while the pugs hind-legs dangled behind her ears. The tip of his tail was brushing the nape of her neck, making the hairs there stand on end. She eyed up the distance out of the corner of her eye.

This part of the river dropped suddenly into a short sharp waterfall, as if the land had one day had a minor disagreement with its neighbouring land and promptly dropped away ten feet to get away from it. The river gurgled and sloshed over a mismatched bed of shoal and boulders, worn smooth and sifted together by the water. There was a fairly flattish bit of beach under her.

She hefted her legs up and pushed her toes against the wall, spreading her chakra out over the soles of her boots to hold them there. One at a time, her hands were carefully relocated to lie flat against the mini-cliff, chakra tingling along her fingers and idly soothing the pins and needles in her fingertips. Then, with utmost concentration, the Kunoichi let her chakra ebb into a controlled slide down the vertical face. Soft clouds of dirt swirled up from her contact points in streams which hugged the rock even after she'd slid past. They dissipated slowly, leaving an odd ladder-like dust trail behind her. Her boots hit the ground with a satisfactory thump.

"Do you think they got my letter yet?" Sakura asked with poorly concealed curiosity. She hopped lightly from boulder to boulder, examining under and around each with a mild frown. She kept half an eye on the river.

"Who knows?" drawled Pakkun, and made a movement against her head which was probably a shrug, "Time differences between dimensions can be pretty messy."

She made a vague noise of acknowledgement, and began gingerly picking her way along another crag. She chose to ignore the fact that Pakkun was still sprawled quite comfortably across the top of her head, and was making no effort at all to get down or start walking by himself. His stomach was warm against her head, and though his weight made her neck ache a little, all in all it wasn't a bad position. It certainly kept the chill off her ears, she thought bemused. Maybe that's why Kiba had always had Akamaru there – leastways, back when Akamaru was small enough – she smiled a little thinking of the enormous nindog. '**Bet **_**he'd**_** give the Wargs a run for their money'**__she thought absently. She hopped over a particularly large rock.

The river rushed on beside her, racing her in bounding gushing leaps, leading her further and further away from the rest of her friends and whatever stronghold they'd manage to hole themselves up in with the rest of Rohan. She worried her lip slightly at that thought. Her eyes raked over the river.

The plan had been to find Aragorn. Find Aragorn, leg it towards Helm's Deep, and reunite with Legolas and Gimli. She hadn't found him yet.

She was trying not to think about what that meant.

She was also trying not to think about Naruto.

She was feeling guilty. The fact, Sakura thought miserably, that I would feel guilty either way doesn't make me feel any better. Worse in fact. She sighed deeply. Sakura knew that she wouldn't have forgiven herself if she'd left with the frog. But damn did it hurt to be so close to home, and so very very far. Her self induced pity party was thankfully interrupted before she _really _started to depress herself. In actual fact, "interrupted" wasn't the right word for it – it was more that she gradually became aware that Pakkun had been trying to get her attention for some time now, and at last pulled herself out of said pity party long enough to respond.

"_What?" _she snapped irritably to the pug on her head, who was insistently patting her with a paw. She swatted at him. He kicked her in the back of the neck.

"_I'm bored," _he whined – and really, nobody can whine like a dog – and shuffled forward on her head til his face was hanging upside down in front of hers. She scowled at him incredulously.

"_That's it?"_

"_Being your hat is not particularly stimulating."_

"_Then. Get. Down."_ She bit out,_ "Or better yet, start helping. Are you a dog or not?"_

Pakkun scowled at her upside down, and gave off the distinct impression that he was haughtily turning up his nose is disdain – or would have, if it were not already permanently turned up (being a pug) and he were _not_ upside down. _"My nose could track __**your**__ scent across two dimensions, and over a ridiculous expanse of land, __**even**__ when you didn't use the right shampoo." _He sniffed indignantly. _"But I have no idea what this friend of yours is supposed to smell like. For all I know he smells of river and we've passed him a million times already."_

He took her sudden moody silence as a victory. He couldn't help pushing the point though. _"But, of course, if you'd care to describe exactly what he smells like-"_

"_Alright already! I get the point." _**Sheesh.**

They travelled in silence for some minutes more; the only sound being that of the river as it bounced over rapids and spread out into a wider, calmer expanse of water, and the soft almost imperceptible thump of Sakura's boots on the smooth rocky riverbank. She had no idea how far down she'd been swept by the river, but calculated that she must have come at least three miles down the river on foot already. It was slower, but it allowed her to search and conserved chakra, so they were walking. Well, she was. Pakkun was freeloading.

"_I'm still bored."_

…

"_Sakura. I'm bored."_

…

"_I can get a lot more annoying than this you know."_

…

"_Sakura-chaaaaaaaaaaan."_

"_Alright!" _she exploded, startling several fish, which swam away unnoticed. _"Geez, do you want some cheese with that whine?"_ She grumbled, scowling with her eyes turned upwards. It gave her a vaguely cross-eyed look. The pug looked entirely unrepentant.

And thus it was that our valiant heroine found herself, of all things, playing I-spy with a small, hitchhiking dog. What made it worse was that he was winning.

"_I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with…A-M-K-A-H"_

"_**What**__? How the heck am I meant to get that?"_

"_A-M-K-A-H" _Pakkun repeated, in a drawl that sounded entirely too smug.

"_I'm pretty damn sure that you can't see a sentence."_

"_A-M-K-"_

"_Yes alright!"_

Pakkun snickered. Sakura muttered to herself, looked around glumly, stomped her foot, huffed, and gave in.

"_Okay," _she groaned, _"I give in."_

"_A man kissing a horse" _said Pakkun smartly.

"_What? Where?" _She spun around wildly, almost dislodging the pug, who wasn't listening.

She interrupted Pakkun's smug 'Oh look I won again' speech with a sharp smack on his rump. _"Where, Pakkun?"_ she growled, ignoring his yelp and resultant complaints. He wriggled around on her head, messing up her hair, and clambered forwards to stick his upside-down face into hers again.

"_There was no call for that,"_ he told her grumpily. She crossed her arms and scowled expectantly. He gestured with a paw to the other side of the river. There was a boulder there, which obscured her view where the river curved. Looking closely, she could see what might be a long-haired tail, as it swished out from the boulder and back out of sight again. But Pakkun, who had a more elevated view, would be able to see perfectly. And if there _was_ a man there…

Sakura darted across the river without warning. The chakra stuck her feet to the water without conscious thought – it was so deeply ingrained now that the skill was practically automatic. Little droplets flew up around her ankles as her boots hit the surface of the river. Pakkun's chakra tickled her head where his paws clung to her, and underneath him her braid whipped out behind her. She was on the other side in seconds.

He was there.

Hasalof – dear Hasalof! – stood over him, nose lowered to nudge his cheek gently, and ever so gently snorted on him. Little drops of mucus hit Aragorn's face, which twitched. Sakura pulled a face. She stepped lightly across the shoal, and quickly raised her hands in a compliant gesture as the startled horse let out a surprised whinny, and half reared at her.

"Easy, Hasalof, easy. It's me, you know me, remember?" she soothed, and he quieted obediently, lowering his head to let her rub between his ears. "Good boy," she praised. Then, horse dealt with, she turned her attention to her prone friend. He was alive, that much was certain, she found with relief – if his twitch from before was not a sign of it, the pained groan when she'd poked him sharply in the ribs was a sure-fire indication. He wasn't quite awake though.

Sakura dealt with that easily enough. It had the added kindness of washing the mucus off. Aragorn was treated to kind and friendly awakening in the form of a chakra-held ball of freezing river water to-the-face.

"Gah!" He sat bolt upright, coughing and spluttering, and shivering.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," chirped Sakura with an amused grin, squatting on her haunches.

"Sakura?" he asked in the rather confused way that most people use just after waking up, and just before the traditional 'where am i?' line. It can be noted that Aragorn was not quite so cliché. Instead, he said: "What happened?"

Then, he regained proper focus and brain function, and asked: "Why is there a dog on your head?"

He hadn't been prepared for the _dog_ to answer.

"_Yo." _Said Pakkun.

"Spy of Sarumon!" screamed Aragorn.

"NO!" yelled Sakura, lunging for the sword that Aragorn had fumbled from it's sheath in record time, and grabbing the ranger tightly by the wrists. Unfortunately the momentum also sent her careening into Aragorn, and forcefully smacked her head against his. Pakkun cursed as he was thrown from his perch and slid down Sakura's back.

"_Oh dear," _said Pakkun forlornly from the ground, as Sakura poked Aragorn's once-again unconscious form. _"He's going to have a terrible headache when he wakes up."_


	41. Chapter 39andahalf:Meanwhile in Ithilien

The forest dripped with the remnants of a recent rain. It was quiet, for now, nothing more than the odd trill of a brave bird leaving its shelter or the rustle of some small animal in the underbrush. There was a strange air of anticipation here, amongst the trees and moss-covered rocks – almost as if, just for a moment, the entire area was holding its breath. But for what, Faramir didn't care to stop and find out.

There were intruders in Ithilien. Their clumsy path came down from the north – from the black gate if he was not mistaken – for all that they did not look like orcs. There was one with them that could only be a creature of Mordor, from the descriptions his scouts told him. "Such a twisted, blackened creature as I had never hoped to see," said one, "and yet so pitiful, so pathetic, it seems both a wrench and a mercy to kill it."

Satisfied that this area, at least, held no threat, he signalled to his men and prepared to return to camp – and from there, northward through the wood towards the travellers that dared intrude on Gondor's land.

Some time after they were gone, when even the breeze had stilled and the birds had quieted, a tension filled the area – like every rock, tree and creature stood to attention and listened. The feeling increased, though there was no man around to feel it. It was as though the air itself was stretched like a cloth across a frame and pulled taught. Then, with a ripple that felt more like a rip and a pop that felt more like a pull, the air swirled into smoke and two figures tumbled out of nowhere to land on the damp earth. One, distinctly inhuman, struggled to right itself under the weight of the other, who likewise wriggled about clumsily until both were once again on their feet.

The taller figure looked around curiously, head cocked to the side like a curious animal, waiting for the smoke to clear. Finally, apparently decided on a direction, the figure jerked its head to the shorter one, and the two bounded away through the brush, without so much as a footprint left behind.

Somewhere, on the other side of the forest, Faramir felt the wood exhale and tightened his grip on his bow.

**A short note from the Author: I apologise to all those who have been asking me to update quickly, I try, I do, I promise, and believe it or not it does (eventually) get done faster when I know someone somewhere is waiting hopefully on another chapter. I still have no intention of abandoning this story – but I'm back at uni now and have also started writing an original novel, so my writing time is a bit more limited nowadays. Nonetheless, thank you to everyone who has continued to read, comment, and wait for my to get my A in G to get the next chapters out, I promise they will keep coming (however slowly, sorry about that!)**

**Disclaimer: None of the characters described or featured in this story belong to me, but to their respective creators.**


	42. Chapter 40: I Could Have Kicked Myself

Sakura shifted her legs as pins and needles began to creep up her shins, and resettled herself more comfortably atop the battlements. Her face was troubled, and her hard green eyes were fixed on the horizon. Beside her, Pakkun cut a still silhouette, maintaining vigil by her side. They both knew what they were waiting for.

-**PageBreakFlashbackPageBreak**-

_The stench of river water and sweat was second only to the smell of the sweat-drenched horse and the dry, choking dust that kicked up under Hasalof's hooves. This was a stretch of No-Man's Land, in the very definition of the word, for no man could live here on this barren stretch between the rolling dales of Rohan and the high rock-ridges of the Mountains. The river had long since curved and flowed away behind them, taking a far more meandering route across the plains. They however, were taking a direct route across the rough high grounds, which fell and swept away in jagged formations down to the plains on one side and far-and-away to the horizon on the other. There was little ground cover here, no trees, only the rough scrub-grass that Hasalof occasionally snatched a mouthful of whenever he found a patch worth eating. Aragorn's fingers were wrapped tight about the reins, his eyes fixed ahead, his route determined and unwavering. There was no conversation. Behind him, Sakura's legs stretched down either side of his own, from her seat on the horse's rump. Despite any effort to maintain distance between them, the movement of Hasalof's gait was such that Sakura found herself inevitably pressed hard up against his back, and eventually gave up in favour of channelling short healing bursts of chakra to whatever wounds she could find. Between them, they had little more than harmless scrapes and bruising, but she spared the chakra to heal a painful broken rib and a few deeper cuts. Aragorn let out a sigh of relief, and briefly laid his hand over hers in thanks._

_The sun was hot and high in the sky when they stopped. Hasalof's flanks heaved with exertion and the poor horse shivered with the sweat and froth that such extended travel had worked up. She took sympathy on him, and gently rubbed his sides with a green-glowing hand to ease his muscles and calm his heavy breathing. It was then, in this moment of relative calm, that both dog and horse lifted their heads in alarmed unison and pricked their ears towards the plains. Dread dropped heavily into her stomach, as she turned slowly on the spot and watched in horrified silence as an unmistakeable dust cloud crested the horizon and the sun dazzled off the metal of ten thousand swords. The risk was enormous – soldier pills were never meant for animals, let alone one's without chakra exposure – but they were desperate. Sakura forced one down Hasalof's throat and clung on for dear life as they sped away, chakra sizzling under her skin for the slightest hint of a problem. They needed to get to Helm's Deep, fast._

-**PageBreakFlashbackPageBreak**-

It began to rain, slowly at first – just the odd drop and a dampness of the air that promised more to come – and then steadily harder, fat globs of water hitting skin and fur with harsh coldness and seeping through the thick leather of Sakura's jerkin to the tunic beneath. Her hair hung heavily in its braid, weighed down by the wetness, while the few stubborn strands that had come loose became plastered to her cheeks and forehead. There was no thunder, or lightning. Nothing about the weather was dramatic enough for a potentially future-shaping battle, Sakura thought. There would be no sudden rays of sunshine to bring hope to the men. There was only the dull, methodical splatter of the rain on the stone of the keep – it was, she thought, rather depressing and defeatist. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if it meant something, that it always seemed to rain whenever Team 7 ran into (and lost) their missing teammate.

"Oi," whispered Pakkun, "I can smell those depressing thoughts from here. Not exactly the attitude you need right before a battle, now is it?"

She dropped her gaze to the pug and gave him a tight, but true, smile. "You're right of course. It's a little hard though, isn't it? Not to think about it." She glanced over her shoulder at the milling, frantic activity in the courtyard. Swords and armour were being tossed about and hurriedly sharpened, and donned. Young boys and Old men huddled close to each other, offering what hope and comfort they could. Somewhere, she was sure she could hear raised voices - in elvish - which could only mean Legolas and Aragorn were arguing. She winced a little at the thought.

"I can smell their fear," Pakkun admitted quietly. "Not just the ones looking at me either." He added, trying to distract a laugh out of her. It worked. She let out an abrupt huff of amusement and quickly tried to hide her smile behind her hand, remembering their rather theatrical re-entry.

-**PageBreakFlashbackPageBreak**-

"_SPY OF SARUM-"_

_Sakura's hand clamped over the elf's mouth, squeezing his cheeks until Legolas resembled a particularly goggle-eyed fish. _

"_If I hear that one more time, I swear I will punt whoever said it off the top of this goddamned keep if it's the last thing I do,' she growled, hard green eyes flashing around the room at the suddenly silent occupants. "Now," she continued in the deathly quiet tone that women use when they are deadly serious, "Pakkun is __not__ a spy of Sarumon. It's very common for dog's to talk where I come from – yes that's right, __where I come from__ – and this particular dog belongs to my teacher and good friend. He was sent to find me, and he's going to be sticking around for a while, so you all better get used to it pretty damn quickly because I refuse to waste any more time! Got it?"_

_Needless to say, after the sore and unpleasant detour-a-la-river and days of non-stop extended travel, in dirt streaked, sweaty and bloody clothes, Sakura's mood was a little worse for wear by the time they reached Helm's deep. And furthermore, the ensuing reaction once Pakkun (who, much to her irritation was still on her head) opened his mouth had frayed her nerves to snapping point. Legolas nodded quickly, massaging his face with a slight wince when she let go. He glared at Gimli behind her back, daring him to laugh. The dwarf in question was slowly turning purple in his supreme effort to hold in his mirth – it was only the fact that one very-pissed-off Sakura and recently returned-from-the-dead Aragorn were still right in front of them that was keeping him from simply bursting out into a fit of guffaws at the elf's less than composed appearance. Thankfully, the temperamental girl was already bearing down on some poor foot soldier with a harsh demand that he take her to the king, and thus his reddened cheeks and watering eyes were seen only by the dog, who smirked a very toothy smirk at him from atop her head._

_He hoped that someone had had the foresight to run ahead and warn Theoden._

-**PageBreakFlashbackPageBreak**-

She dropped a hand to his head and fondly rubbed his ears. "Trying to cheer me up? You big softy," She teased, and for a moment she was the much younger Sakura that Pakkun remembered, before this world-wise and hardened version came along. He batted her hand away half-heartedly.

"Shut up," he muttered grumpily, turning his head with a disgruntled huff.

They resumed their watch, each immersed in their own thoughts.

-**PageBreakFlashbackPageBreak**-

"_HOW MANY?"_

_Several nearby soldiers flinched as their King sprang for his seat with a distressed roar._

"_Ten thousand," repeated Aragorn, grimly, "At least."_

_The King began pacing back and forth, kicking up the dust as his boots scuffed the stone, while the soldier's heads followed him like spectators at a tennis match. Sakura stood off to the side, having a muttered conversation with the pug on her head now that neither was needed in the main discussion. There was no doubt about it – their chances of winning this one were slim – but Sakura would be damned if she regretted her decision to stay. So instead of moping, she was bouncing battle plans off Pakkun, who was quite possibly even better at strategising than Kakashi was (she'd often wondered just who taught who in that particular partnership). Aragorn could manage the inevitable fallout well enough without her. He was, overall, far more diplomatic than she was in general and had an almost phenomenal forbearance when the situation required it – who else could deal with four moody hobbits and a temperamental Sakura all alone?_

_She was struck out of her thoughts abruptly by a sharp kick to the back of her neck – courtesy of Pakkun. Her attention was quickly drawn to the ranting King, who was alternating between barking harsh orders to his soldiers and a grim despair that settled heavily over his features as the room vacated, and he turned to Aragorn and Sakura._

"_Tell me exactly what you saw," he whispered hoarsely._

_Aragorn left out no detail, and the picture he painted was far from pretty. Not a thing was omitted, even down to the way Hasalof had collapsed, legs shaking, three miles from the gate; and how Sakura had summoned her super-human strength to carry the trembling horse the rest of the way, sprawled – legs in the air - over her shoulders like a hunting trophy. The poor loyal beast was exhausted, and the unnatural energy forced into his system had left his muscles in near-shock and his nerves thrumming, though Sakura had done her best to minimise the damage and sent him into a deep recovering sleep once safely ensconced in the stable._

_Sakura, for her part, had little to add which had not been said. This last was refuted as impossible by the King, who had heard her story with great astonishment in Rohan, but who had yet to see the extent of her power. She settled his fears by abruptly lifting him, throne and all, high above her head and balancing the great chair on the flat of her hand._

"_Still want to shut me up with the kiddies in the cave old man?" she glared up at him, while he grasped the arms of his chair tightly enough to turn his knuckles white, eyes wide in surprise. To her credit, she reined in her indignation long enough to place him gently back onto the floor._

"_You __will__ help us win this battle," he ordered, eyes hard. Sakura scoffed._

"_Of course I will," she said with a haughty toss of her hair, and promptly ran up the wall and out of the high window, hopping up to take watch on the battlements._

_But despite the display, Aragorn knew that neither felt as confident in their hearts as they tried to portray, and he felt an uneasy dread in the pit of his stomach for the coming days._

-**PageBreakFlashbackPageBreak**-

The coming of the army would have been distinctly more ominous if there had been a tell-tale cloud of dust proceeding them. But the rain, though it had settled in a grey mist, had made the dirt heavy, and thus they came not in a cloud, but like shadows melting out of the mist with nothing more than the sound of a horn to forewarn the keep. There was a kunai in Sakura's hand before she even blinked, and it was in the ground not a second after. But this army was small – too small for the thousands they had seen – so where were the rest? Sakura reached for her weapons in anticipation of a surprise attack from elsewhere. It was then; that what could only be the leader stepped forward, and very slowly bent to tug the knife out of the stonework, his hooded face never leaving hers. She wasn't sure what held her back, but she was sure she felt his eyes boring into hers under that hood, and for some reason she did not throw another kunai – only waited, and watched. Pakkun stood at the ready, his little body equally still.

The figure rose quietly, slowly, with his hand hanging limp and the loop of the knife loosely over one finger. His other hand came up, palm flat, in the universal gesture for "Wait, peace." The battlements prickled with men, poised and high-strung, yet unmoving. It occurred to Sakura belatedly that they were waiting for her to do something, make some move or some signal. Her eyes flickered over the flags held aloft, her ears replayed the sound of the horn, and her brain raced to connect the dots. Down below, the hand came up to the hood, and pushed it back just far enough to reveal a glimpse of silvery-blond hair and a smirk.

And just like that, Sakura could have kicked herself.


	43. Chapter 41: Old Friends and Souvenirs

"Open the gates!" went up the cry, as men scrambled madly to:

get out of the scary pink-haired girl's way, and

do what she said, quickly. Very quickly.

News of that sort of strength and temper travelled _fast_.

For her part, Sakura was already hurtling vertically down the side of the wall, aiming for the flash of blonde in the crowd that could only be Legolas and his ridiculously perfect hair. She was banking that Aragorn was with him. Gimli too, if he wasn't somewhere doing his little bearded best to make Eowyn smile. For a guy who had no less than two battle-axes on his person at all times, he could be such a softy for a sad woman.

There were too many men in the courtyard to make an easy landing. She made do by launching into an impressive double somersault over their heads, twisting her body in midair and catching the elf's shoulder with one hand, pausing for a millisecond poised in a perfect one-handed hand-stand and finally letting her legs flip over her own head and landing neatly in front of her friend. Legolas didn't even blink.

"Ah, Sakura," he said mildly, "I was hoping to find you."

"Always happy to drop in when you need me Legolas ol' pal. Where are Aragorn and Gimli?"

He nodded towards the gate and the two resumed an easy gait in that direction, as if nothing at all out of the ordinary had happened. The men in the courtyard, whose jaws were still on the floor, watched them go with nothing short of sheer disbelief. It wasn't until they passed under the great archway and into a narrow lane between sections of the keep, that the elf fixed Sakura with an amused look that said all too clearly: 'Show off'.

She grinned and shrugged innocently. "I thought it was a good idea to keep them on their toes. Expect the unexpected, sort of thing."

"Indeed?"

"Oh yes."

"I admire your forethought."

"Always pays to be prepared."

They grinned easily. The crowd of people was thicker in the lower courtyard – Legolas wove through the crowd as politely as he could, on his silent elfin feet. Sakura pushed through like a rhinoceros (that is to say, without warning or discretion, and with the sure-fire knowledge deep in her being that people would not be in the way for very long) Soldiers, old men and boys alike were whispering in a strange mix of elation, excitement and fear. The very keep was abuzz. But even that noise was drowned out by the ear-cracking _CREEEEAAK _that was the gates swinging open forcibly on their seldom-used hinges, accompanied by the unmistakeable thump-thump-thump of military boots marching into the square.

Elf and girl emerged next to the second half of their party, and not for the first time Sakura marvelled at Legolas' seemingly unparalleled sense of direction. Without looking, Aragorn reached behind him to catch hold of Sakura's elbow and pull her to the front, in much the same way a father would to let his child get a better view at the Disneyland Parade. He ruffled her hair teasingly; no doubt he'd heard or witnessed her exchange from the wall. With his other hand he absentmindedly petted Pakkun, who had appeared without circumstance atop Gimli's helmet, much to the dwarf's vocal disgust.

They waited expectantly as the hooded and cloaked leader of the foreign party approached King Theoden. He bowed, pulling off his hood as he straightened. His voice, though not loud, carried clearly through the throng of men.

"Long ago," said Haldir, "there existed an allegiance between Man and Elf. We come to honour that allegiance."

Theoden didn't even get a chance to answer – Aragorn was already embracing the elf. But it was to Sakura that he turned with the most interest.

"This is yours I believe my lady," Haldir said mockingly, and with the barest hint of challenge (and perhaps, just a smidgeon of wariness) in his eyes. Collectively, the men held their breath. They knew how volatile the little lady was. Her response, however, threw them for a loop once again. Most of them gave up on attempting to gauge her moods then and there, and simply resolved to avoid her from then on in.

Because Sakura did not, as many were expecting, attempt to skin him alive for mocking her. Sakura laughed.

"Keep it," she told him, and added with a cheeky smirk, "I'd hate for you or your men to forget me."

The elf exhaled slowly in what could be described as a long-suffering sigh. "My Lady Sakura, I doubt that my men or I shall _ever _be able to forget you, even in spite of our most _voracious _efforts to do so."

She smirked outright at that. "Consider it a souvenir. Besides, you may as well have a _decent_ weapon about you. Who knows when you'll need it?"

His eyes narrowed, even as Haldir executed a mocking bow and stowed the knife away in his belt. "An eye for an eye, perhaps?" he murmured, too quiet for most to hear. She smiled secretly and shifted her weight, momentarily allowing the light to catch the very tip of a silver handle stowed away in her boot.

"Perhaps," she conceded.

And that was that. Haldir was bustled off with Aragorn and Theoden King to make, remake and argue over battle strategies; Haldir's elves were ushered up to the battlements by Legolas and intermixed with the human archers; all the while exchanging the known weak spots of Uruk-hai in hurried elvish, and slowly Theoden's men returned to their posts or to their queues for blunt swords and rusty armour. Sakura scooped Pakkun off of Gimli's head, both of whom began grumbling anew – the former over being displaced from his spot, and the latter over the former having been in that spot in the first place. She teasingly rocked the pug back into the crook of her arm like she was holding a baby, and teasingly tickled his belly. He complained, of course, but the effect was somewhat lessened by the fact that his hind legs had begun peddling fast enough for his whole bottom to wobble. It was, he said, demeaning to his dignity. Gimli noted with amusement that the dog wasn't exactly telling her to stop – a comment which was met with much baring of teeth and growling from Pakkun, and much giggling from Sakura, whose spirits seemed to have risen exponentially after her little run in with Haldir.

She always did seem so much more cheerful when she felt she'd beaten someone. He wondered vaguely if he should worry about that.


	44. Chapter 42: The Battle Begins

_It was the rain that started first. The big, fat drops fell like lead, relentlessly hammering at the battlements. It soaked into the wood of the catapults and slid like a serpent into the cracks in the stone. It plastered the soldier's hair to their heads and their clothes to their skin, leaving them to shiver so hard their chainmail rattled. It was so heavy and so thick that Sakura was half-certain the valley itself would flood. It was really quite poetic, when she thought about it. The sort of setting that you usually saw only in stories. The air seemed darker. Grey roiling clouds filled what little space remained between the sky and the mountains, smothering any light from above. It looked like somebody had put a ceiling on the valley. A big grey wet ceiling that matched the big grey wet ground below it, and the heavy grey mood that descended on the men faster than the rain ever could. In Sakura's rather educated opinion, there was nothing more depressing, or more fear-inducing, than the long wait before the battle even started. Nobody talked. Nobody moved. Everyone waited._

_And finally, the heavy sound of marching broke through the rumble of the weather. Sakura crouched atop the battlements, among the archers, and pretended not to notice the old men and the young boys shaking. The medic in her despaired for the lives she knew she'd be unable to save. The ninja in her was cold. Poker-faced and aloof as she planned for the lives she was about to take. Her senses were on high alert. The adrenaline was kicking in. Her body felt like it was thrumming with expectation. She didn't know by this point whether the reaction was just habituation…or if she'd always had a strange, deep-rooted appreciation for fighting. _

_**A bit of both, probably. **__It was a sobering thought. And one she didn't have time to dwell on. Saruman's army was coming. _

_They emerged through the rain and mist and mud like a plague. All at once the valley seemed to fill with black. The flickering light of the torches they carried glinted off armour and weaponry as the enormous mass of Uruk-hai came to a standstill and the two armies stood staring at one another for one long, suspended, tension-filled moment._

_It had been one of the old men that had begun the fighting. She'd been standing next to him, when his trembling hand let go of the arrow. It was a clean hit, for all it was unintentional. The uruk was struck in the neck, killed quickly and cleanly. Every eye had been on it as it crumpled first to its knees, then flat to the ground, the quiver of the arrow still trembling. And then the roar had started. It reverberated from the throat of every uruk in the valley and felt almost like it could shake down the very walls. And then the arrows started flying. Sakura launched herself into the air and twisted, slapping arrows away like flies and tumbling into the fray._

Whatever momentary good mood Sakura had managed to find, was gone. More specifically, it was drowned, shot and trampled, sometime between the rain starting, Saruman's army arriving, and the monumental bloodshed that was currently going on around her. The nin was barely more than a pink blur as she skidded through the mud and between the sweaty Uruks that made up the enemy army. Her face was set, her eyes cold, her hand dispassionately level as her chakra scalpels sliced neatly through femoral arteries and jugular veins, forming two even rows of falling bodies that marked her passage.

She thought she heard a bark, briefly, but it was quickly swallowed by the rain and sounds of battle.

She had long since lost track of time, and even longer since lost track of her friends. The occasional arrow that sailed out of nowhere to take out an unseen foe told her that Legolas was still on the battlements, and that she was within range of his sight. How long she would be in range of his bow was anyone's guess, and she tried not to rely on his backup. The rain was dulling her senses, limiting both sight and hearing, but she daren't use her chakra to help enhance them. Instead, Sakura closed her eyes and focussed on a baser instinct, one that reached back through several centuries of evolution and back to the very first monkeys that learned to survive by learning to '**DUCK**!'

She dropped to the ground, plastering her front with mud in the process. The Uruk's mace whistled as it violently killed the air where her head had just been. She rolled over to see the offending creature – he was big and muscled, with a face that looked like he'd been on the wrong end of a mallet. He grinned manically at her, and swung the mace over his head. She broke his kneecap, and caught the mace easily as it dropped to the ground, its owner clutching his leg in agony. She didn't bat an eyelash as she finished him off with his own weapon.

_Theoden's voice was so loud as to bounce around the war room from wall to wall, but even that was drowned out by Sakura's displeasure._

"_Am I a medic or not? I can __save __lives!" was her angered cry._

"_You freely call yourself a weapon!" came Theoden's enraged reply, "Our greatest weapon!"_

"_Then you would rather have a thousand dead orcs than a thousand living men?" _

_Theoden opened his mouth to shout, but appeared to change his mind at the last minute. His jaw snapped up and clenched. They stared each other down._

_He sighed at last – it was a weary sigh, a sigh full of the weight of the world – and suddenly he looked every bit an old man._

"_I would rather have both," he said quietly as he slowly sat back into his throne, and looked at her with heavy eyes. "But I cannot. We cannot win this war without a weapon, Sakura."_

_Her ire drained out of her. She folded her arms, scowling more in troubled thought than in anger. A paw patted her knee and her gaze flicked to the pug by her feet._

"_**How much chakra do you have?"**__ asked Pakkun, quietly, in their own language. The men of Rohan looked on curiously._

"_**Enough, I think,"**__ she replied just as quietly._

"_**Soldier pills?"**_

_That drew a slight wince._

"_**Not nearly as many as I'd like, but I'll manage. I'll have to."**_

"_**And if you run out?"**_

_A wicked grin. __**"The old fashioned way, of course."**_

_That grin stayed on her face as she looked up. Sakura brought her hands together in a quickly executed pattern of symbols, so fast the soldiers could barely recognise each hand-sign before another replaced it. And then, with a puff of smoke so sudden that several of the men in the room jumped, there were two of her._

"_One to fight, one to heal," said the second Sakura succinctly._

"_And no arguments," added the first Sakura, sternly. __**"Stay with the clone," **__she added to Pakkun. This was going to be a drain on her chakra as it was, the last thing she needed was to have to make a new one. Pakkun would help to protect her doppelganger and prevent the whole thing, quite literally, going up in smoke. She looked to the clone, who nodded her understanding. She only hoped she had enough chakra to keep this up._

Somewhere, deep in her own mind, Sakura knew she was well and truly lost to her shinobi training. At any other time, a nin could pretend to be almost normal, human. But on the battleground, where blood was just another piece of the landscape and death was as commonplace as air, ninja were nothing more than mindless killing machines - Empty of emotion because they didn't have time for it, and killing as instinctively as they breathed. No wonder her friends had been so horrified by her in Moria. But she didn't have time to acknowledge if or how much that bothered her, because here and now what her friends needed more than anything was a weapon.

An inhuman growl broke out behind her. Her brain had just enough time to register the smell of mud, blood and leather, the creak of his armour, the rankness of his breath, and the cool feel of the air rushing past her knuckles, before her fist met his nose with a sickening crunch. A sharp kick to his solar plexus finished the job, and had the added bonus of taking out the orc behind her attacker as well. She vaulted over both bodies and snatched up the strange curved swords they seemed to favour. The blades reminded her somewhat of Kabuto's curved kunai, and she vaguely wondered if there was some correlation between murderous psycho's and curvy weapons, even as she whipped the swords around and sliced the heads off the nearest Uruk's, before jerking her elbows back and slamming both handles into the gut of the enemy behind her.

This proved, however, to be a phenomenally bad move as Sakura became aware of just how much her normal 'ninja-senses' had been compromised by the rain and the noise, for though there was indeed an enemy behind her, it was not an Orc as she had previously assumed, and as such, a swift jab to the kidneys had less injured it than pissed it the hell off. And thus Sakura found her self dangling upside down, one leg firmly held in the grip of the second cave troll she'd ever seen in her life. For a moment – just a moment, because Iruka-sensei had sure as hell never taught them about _this_ – Sakura froze, staring into those tiny furrowed eyes. Then she swore. Loudly. And broke the spell. The troll roared and swung her over its head like a ragdoll, faster and faster until it simply let her go abruptly mid-circle.

_She'd been offered armour, to replace the riding leathers and the jerkin she wore; chainmail to replace her soft cloth undershirts. She'd refused. They would only slow her down, she thought. Aragorn agreed with her, but it was blatantly obvious that he'd prefer she accepted. But Sakura was adamant. She needed speed more than she needed armour. _

Sakura flew over the heads of Isengard's finest and crashed without mercy into the solid wall of the keep. She whimpered as she felt her skull rattle. She slid down the wall into a crumpled little heap, vision swimming with little black dots and stomach swimming with the kind of nausea that only flight-ala-troll and severe pain can cause.

Her chakra was reacting madly, spiking and swelling erratically as her body instinctively reacted. Sakura gritted her teeth so hard she nearly bit her tongue in half, and forced all the chakra that she could into her head. She damn near blew the top of her head off, or so it felt. Light seemed to flash behind her eyelids. Her jaw creaked she was clenching it so hard. But, even in spite of the initial explosion, the pain in her head began to slowly recede, leaving her panting and tear-stricken in the aftermath, but her eyes focussed and her head clear. A faint whistle of air was the only indication she had before an arrow ripped through the air and embedded itself into an orc just a tad too close for anyone's comfort. She looked up to see a flash of blonde, and waved her hand at it in thanks.

**Right, where's that bloody troll?**

Sakura's eyes glinted with a familiar steely look, as her feet slid sideways into a wide, weight bearing stance. Her gaze flicked side to side, measuring up the distance with the very same mental calculations that she'd once been asked as a trick question, in the chuunin exams long ago. She had known them then, and years of field practice had refined that skill so much that she could pinpoint with near exact accuracy that if she wanted to take out the enemy _there _then she had to strike… _**HERE**__._

There was so much chakra in the blow that her fist glowed neon green. There was little chance to appreciate the colour. With a tremendous crack the ground split apart like an earthquake – a perfectly controlled earthquake. The fissure spread from the impact and widened, swallowing orcs like hungry giant and twice as fast. The ground trembled and from somewhere above began the terrifying sound of rocks beginning to fall. Sakura hardened her heart to the sound of screaming uruk's and slammed the other fist into the same spot. The fissure widened and several Orcs bellowed in fear as their siege machine crumpled and slid down the side of the chasm, taking its operators, and the trolls that pulled it, with it. The landslide from the mountain gathered speed quickly, and a veritable waterfall of rocks, sand and dust buried the unfortunate individuals who failed to outrun it, and kicked up such a dust cloud in its wake that those who did outrun it stood to choke on it instead.

But it wasn't enough. Sakura glared as she measured up the enemy. There barely seemed to be a dent in their numbers at all. There were just so _many_.

**Dammit, **thought Sakura sourly, **Where was Naruto when you needed him?**


	45. Chapter 43: The Boy and The Frog

**EDIT! PROLOGUE AND FIRST CHAPTER OF WiME PART ONE (revised ed.) ARE UP. STORY WILL BE UPDATED WEEKLY.**

**In other news, I know some of you really wanted me to finish this version before rewriting, but I really don't have any motivation to do so, sorry :/ And at this point the only way I can finish without going on for another 20 chapters or so is to kill Sakura off in Helm's Deep...I don't know about you lot but I don't think that's how I want it to end :( **

**END OF EDIT **

**The scenes that made the cut.**

_**Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me**_

_The two figures cut a path through the forest as silent and invisible as two shadows. At long last, they came across a small clearing, which – after discreet surveillance – the taller of the two indicated to, and both dropped easily into the centre. The tall figure straightened and stood with his hands on his hips, looking about with the hood of his cloak tilted to the side, as if he were cocking his head in curiosity. _

"_**This is the last place you saw Sakura-chan?" **__he said, turning to his squat companion._

"_**Ribbit" **__said the frog._

"_**No? Whaddya mean no?"**_

"_**Ribbit."**_

"_**Well how the heck do we even know we're in the right place huh? We could be in a different country! How do you know you came to the right dimension even!"**_

"_**Ribbit" **__croaked the frog reproachfully, drawing itself up as if in indignation. __**"Ribbit!"**_

"_**Ok, Ok, alright. I'm sorry," **__muttered the boy, tugging his hood down and running a hand roughly through his blonde hair, messing it up into a spiky halo. __**"I'm worried about her." **__Naruto told his frog dejectedly, __**"What if I can't find her?"**_

"_**Ribbit? Ribbit! Ribbit!" **__The frog hopped forward and sat up on it's hind legs, bringing it almost to the boy's height. It's large flat hand slapped against his back with three sharp thud's. All his air rushed out of him with an abrupt 'oof!'_

"_**Thanks,"**__ he muttered, rubbing his ribs._

"_**Ribbit," **__said the frog encouragingly._

_**Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me~~Here~have~a~scene~on~me**_

_The splash wasn't so loud as to startle wildlife or create much of a stir, all things considered. It __was__ loud enough to attract Faramir's attention. It was not the splash of a fish, or a fishing creature; not the kind he was accustomed to hearing in this part of the woods. For all it was not loud, that splash had still sounded too large for any creature he knew of, and he knew these woods like the back of his hand. And that was the reason that Faramir, man of Gondor and son of the Steward, was crouched amid the overhanging branches of an old, leaning tree. It's roots dug into a crumbling bank and the tree clung to it like a limpet. It's trunk was twisted strangely, and stretched and leaned outwards over the drop, while its branches fanned out every-which-way and provided a veritable umbrella for the average spy to hide in comfortably. Below, a deep pool spread out in a wide, rough oblong. It was shadowed by the canopy, which gave the water a dark greenish hue, and was fed by a narrow, rocky stream. An idyllic setting, all in all._

_But it was not the scenery that had captured Faramir's attention. It was the frog. It sat sunning itself on the opposite bank, occasionally letting out a lazy croak. This in and of itself was not the strange thing. The strange thing was that it was large enough for a grown man to sit astride, as he would a horse. Furthermore, it was such a vibrant shade of orange that it almost hurt his eyes to look at it. It had warts the size of his fist! Never in his life had he laid eyes on such a creature!_

_But what to do about it? There were intruder's in the woods, and a creature that could only be a spy of Mordor. His men were waiting for his orders. This animal was harmless, as far as he could see, and it did not appear to be doing anything other than sitting in the sun. The colour of its skin gave him concern, for he had heard of poisonous frogs which coloured their skin in such bright to mention it's size. Frowning in thought, Faramir fingered his bow. The frog croaked. It didn't move._

_Faramir was not a man naturally inclined to kill an innocent creature. With a lingering glance, he stowed his bow and retreated from the tree, as quickly and quietly as he could. A hand signal was all the signal his men needed, and like shadows they melted away through the woods with ease perfected by years of the same._

_The frog, with remarkably intelligent eyes, watched him leave. It waited, tilting it's head slowly sideways, as if listening, for all it didn't seem to have much in the way of ears. Finally, it appeared satisfied._

"_**Ribbit" **__it said._

_With a splash and a deep gasp, Naruto's head broke the surface of the water, inhaling so hard and fast his cheeks looked like red balloons. He finished by shaking his head vigorously, until all his hair stood on end._

"_**I thought he'd never leave," **__he grinned._

"_**Ribbit," **__said the frog, wisely._

_**~End~of~Scenes~~End~of~Scenes~~End~of~Scenes~~End~of~Scenes~~End~of~Scenes~~End~of~Scenes~~End~of~Scenes~~End~of~Scenes~~End~of~Scenes~~End~of~Scenes~**_

**~Devi1OnUrShou1der~**


	46. Chapter 44: The story ends

**Author NOTE: Well, some of you were all for the rewrite, and others wanted this story to reach an acceptable ending first. Sorry, but I can't throw out another twenty chapters, so instead, here is one chapter and two epilogues, to bring the story to an acceptable end. Of course, many of you will consider this a terrible ending, but at least its an acceptable one, yes?**

**Enjoy :)**

The battle was long, bloody and fraught with the kind of peril people usually only read about. Sakura dived between writhing and falling orc-bodies; she had shuriken between each finger and carved a path of death and destruction behind her. She felt numb, blind to the mass-scale death around her. And _that _was what made her disgusted. Orc blood was as black as pitch, and she was quickly turning becoming one big black moving blob.

Screams and shouts from atop the battlements froze her heart, and Sakura skidded to a halt, ignoring the way the blood caked with the dirt on her boots and left black skid marks. Isengard's army had brought out the big guns – or more specifically – catapults, and great ladders which the enemy were swarming up like very aggressive ants. Sakura's eyes widened fearfully. She jerked upright and tossed the shuriken randomly to either side of her. The cries of the stricken orcs sounded out dully behind her as Sakura rushed the nearest Catapult. It was an enormous contraption, pulled by two trolls and loaded with boulders so big she wondered that they could lift them into the catapult in the first place. She coiled chakra instinctively into her legs; she forced it down to her feet and released it like a compressed spring. She shot up into the air like a speeding pink bullet and spun in mid-air, extending her leg down. A faint trail of green glowed around her foot as she descended like a rocket and hit the catapult with a tremendous explosion of wood and shrapnel.

The trolls roared in pain as the fragments struck their backs, and only that roar drowned out the screams of the orcs who manned it, as they fell or were crushed in the wreckage. Sakura flipped herself away and landed lithely on the very boulder they'd intended to throw. Summoning her inner Tsunade, she gripped the rock firmly and pivoted on one foot, swinging it around in a wide arc. She let it loose with a battle-cry – "_**SHANNARO!" **_– and flung it directly into another catapult, which collapsed with an eruption of noise.

The angry and pain-blinded trolls began striking out left, right and centre, taking out more of their own than even Sakura had. But she didn't stop to admire her handiwork; she was already making a beeline for the walls of the Keep. She flash-stepped twice and planted her foot on the head of a handy Uruk, launching herself onto the wall. She planted her feet with chakra and began running sideways along the wall, knocking ladders away, snapping rungs and kicking the occasional Orc in the face whenever she got the chance. She saw a flash of pink out of the corner of her eye, and felt a surge of pride that her clone was still running about on the battlements.

Arrows, which previously had been sailing over her head, began striking the wall dangerously close to her person. It seemed the enemy army had deemed her more of a threat than the archers on the wall. That left her with the problem of having to zigzag across the wall rather than running in a straight line; it was a bigger strain on her chakra and her chakra control, not to mention the wall was wet from the rain. Her foot slipped more than once. Sakura gritted her teeth and persevered. She'd be damned if she let them beat her.

_**~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~**_

_**Sakura's clone tore along the battlements, heart aching for the cries of the wounded. She darted between men and elves, her chakra buzzed in her fingers and she barely had a chance to dispel her healing jutsu before she needed it again. Her hands glowed green near constantly. She wanted desperately to help with the fighting, but she knew that she was merely a clone, and that she would break apart with little more than a puff of smoke if she got anywhere near. Instead, she focused her vision on the wounded, and there were more than enough to focus on. **_

_**She dropped down between two wounded archers, using one hand for each and performing a quick healing on both at once. It wasn't nearly as thorough as she wanted – little more than a slap-dash patch-up – but there was no time for anything else. A shot of chakra to the adrenal gland was as good as she could manage to get them back on their feet, not that they needed much help to get their adrenaline going. Their hearts damn near hammered out of their chests.**_

_**She clapped each on the shoulder and hauled them to their feet again before moving on to the next victim. She'd lost count of how many arrow wounds she'd healed. Or how many men she'd already failed to save. Every medical bone in her body was already screaming at her for her failures, just as much as her ninja side was screaming at her to join in and do something. The clone pushed on. **_

_**~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~**_

Sakura was running toward the wrong end of the keep. She realised this when the Orcs below her began shoving each other in the same direction. This was distinctively odd behaviour, and Sakura jerked around as the dreadful realisation swept over her; something was about to go terribly, terribly wrong. He could see them on the other side of the valley; the great army was shifting and surging like a roiling sea. Then, starting from the back forward, they began to part. Sakura began to run.

The Uruks parted like the red sea, and like the torch bearer of the Olympics, came a lanky Uruk-hai with a flaming torch held high above his head. Time seemed to slow as Sakura threw all of her chakra into her feet and flash-stepped half of the way back. But, her foot slipped as she misjudged the distance, and instead of kicking off into another flash step, she slid down the wall and was forced to stumble across the heads of several Orcs as she tried to get her balance again.

The Orcs took advantage of her distraction to surge up the remaining ladders. Before anyone knew it, they were up and storming the battlements, with guttural war-cries echoing from their throats.

_**~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~**_

_**The clone cried out and rolled out of the way as the Orcs came over, and then cried out again in anguish as one of them beheaded the young boy she'd been working on moments before. The men rallied quickly and drew their rusty swords in record time – they met them weapon for weapon – but the shouts of the stricken echoed in her ears. The clone desperately tried to duck and weave through the throng, intent on staying in one, functional piece. From somewhere ahead, she heard Aragorn calling to Legolas to 'Bring him down', but she had no way of knowing who he was referring to. She searched for the Ranger among the elfin archers, but it was not Aragorn that struck her gaze.**_

_**Sakura's clone watched in horror as Uruk-hai flowed over the battlements like a flood. The elves blocked their blows with their bows, and tugged slim blades from their belts to meet the enemy. Haldir had scooped up a second sword from a fallen comrade and bore one in each hand, swinging them around with speed and agility that most ninja would envy. But as good as elf-vision was, he did not have eyes in the back of his head, and as the clone saw an enormous Uruk loom behind him, she made the worst and only decision of her short life. She flash-stepped forward…**_

…_**Haldir turned a second too late, eyes widening as his head spun around to see the Uruk with a thick black sword raised and ready to strike. Futilely, he tried to bring his own sword up to block the hit, but the sword was already coming down… **_

…_**and she took the blow. **_

_**~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~**_

Sakura knew without a doubt when her clone had been destroyed. She tumbled off the wall as her chakra gave a great lurch within her, and her face paled as she realised that she'd pushed herself too far. There was barely any left, and her head spun as the chakra drain and the sudden surge of memory took their toll. She felt sick, her vision blurred momentarily, but she gritted her teeth and pushed it away. She could see the torch-bearer ahead, almost at the wall, and Aragorn's shouts reverberated in her head. Legolas loosed one arrow after another but each and every one failed to bring him down.

She had no doubt that when he reached the wall all hell was going to break loose. Sakura fixed her eyes desperately on the running Uruk, called on the last dregs of chakra in her system and _pushed_. She appeared just meters behind him.

_**~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~**_

_**Pakkun had cursed when Sakura had dived in to save the elf, but that was typical headstrong Sakura. He didn't have time after that to worry anymore about the clone, though. Something was terribly wrong and his every instinct was crying out for him to find the real Sakura and fast. He tore along the battlements faster than any regular animal could dream of running, and howled worriedly as the overwhelming smell of gunpowder and fire assaulted his nose.**_

_**And Sakura was headed right for it. He could see her appear and stumble; see her running desperately after an Orc with a huge torch in his hand. The signs of chakra exhaustion were so obvious he wondered how she possibly thought she could get out of there.**_

_**He tried to bark out a warning but the sounds of battle were so loud and so vicious that he was sure it was lost entirely on her inferior human ears. There was nothing for it. The panicked pug dived off the battlements.**_

_**~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~~pagebreak~**_

Sakura heard a bark, somewhere up above, but she had no time to acknowledge it. Her muscles were screaming, her breathing was short, but she was…Within. Arms. Reach…

A weight hit her back like a ton of bricks and she barrelled into the back of the Orc. Pakkun yelped in her ear. The Orc shouted out in a strange gruff language. The torch hit its mark.

The very world seemed to erupt. Men were flung from the wall as the stone burst upward underneath them. Fire leapt into the air. Smoke burst from the wreckage and billowed into the air. Stone and shrapnel were flung far and wide. Heat so intense that it dried the ground swept across Helm's Deep like a wave. It was as if a volcano had opened up under the wall and turned the tide of the fight. Water was thrown up from the drain in torrents with the force of it.

"SAKURA!"

It was unclear whether it was man, elf or dwarf that called out, but all three were fighting the crowd to get down there, even as the opening lit alight.

"SAKURA!"

But the girl and her dog were gone, and only the enemy army came through the gap to meet them.


	47. Chapter 45: Epilogue 1

Only the still and rigid bodies of the dead, and the crumbled walls of the Keep, marked the battle that had taken place. Mother Nature had extended her hand and slowly, the rain was washing away the blood from the stonework, and turning the dirt into a mud that welcomed the bodies and hugged them close. Soldiers slugged through it, digging large ditches which nobody wanted to label 'mass graves'. For the most part, they were silent.

Knee deep in a drainage ditch, a man stood with his head hung and his fists clenched around a slim, silver knife. Beside him, an elf and a dwarf stood together, sharing their grief. A old man clothed all in white stood on the shore, and so far had tried to speak several times, only to become choked up himself, and fall quiet again. For once, even Gandalf did not know what to say.

"What will we tell the little'uns?" Gimli mumbled, salty tears tracking down his cheeks, "What'll we tell 'em?"

"What else can we tell them?" answered the elf bitterly. "She fell."

"She didn't!"

They looked at Aragorn in surprise. His face looked older and more stricken than they'd ever seen him, but his eyes were steely.

"We have found no body," he stated, breathing heavily, "and Sakura was no ordinary girl. We tell them the truth. She is gone, yes, but not dead." He stared them all down.

"She is not dead," he repeated firmly. Legolas and Gimli said nothing, but the dwarf rubbed roughly at his eyes and the elf composed himself.

"What are we waiting for then?" said Gimli at last, in a gruff voice, "We 'ave some hobbits waiting for us, and I'd hate to tell Sakura we'd let them down if'n we ever see the lass again."

Gandalf began to smile. "I am sure we will, someday."

The four made their way toward the gate together, and when Aragorn slipped the silver knife into his boot nobody questioned it. They rode off a brisk trot, and each and every one of them stopped at the top of the hill to look back over the valley.

"You know," Gandalf mused at last, lost in a long ago memory, "I rather believe that of all us, she had the best hair after all."

Legolas laughed freely for the first time in many months, and the others, against all reason, found themselves compelled to join him. Loud and long, and only slightly hysterical, they laughed, while the remaining men of Rohan looked on as if they had gone quite mad. At long last, the laughter dwindled into moist, shining eyes and red, aching cheeks.

"I do believe so," Legolas whispered breathlessly. And as one, the four offered a short, sharp salute to the empty valley.


	48. Chapter 46: Epilogue 2

_**In a round, dignified office in the middle of a dignified, sprawling village, Sakura and Tsunade stared each other down in mutual, mute shock. Their faces, to the observer, looked near identical, down to the bugging of the eyes and the purpling of the cheeks. Tsunade erupted first.**_

"_**What the hell do you mean you want to go back!" **_

"_**What the hell do **__**you**__** mean 'Naruto isn't here'?"**_

_**On the sidelines, Pakkun sighed, and curled up for a nap in the sun. He was getting far too old for this shit.**_


End file.
